Pokemon Diamond and Pearl Time Travel
by JapanDreamer09
Summary: Team Galatic ruled the world. Now Lucas went back in time fourteen years ago to stop them. Along the way, he meet Dawn and Daimon. Will they be able to save the world? Will Lucas want to go back after he realized his feelings for Dawn? LucasXDawn
1. Time Traveling Part One

**Disclaimer: **Me doesn't own Pokemon (lol; bad grammar)

Hey everyone! My name is **JapanDreamer**! (well, its not really my name but you get the idea). This is my first Diamond and Pearl story, so be nice. My editor thought this story has potential so I decided to give it a shot. Well, enjoy!

If you want to read the full summary, check out my profile. Its in more detail.

**Prologue Part One:**

_Ten years ago, there was a group. A group called Team Galactic, which strived to make a better world by destroying the old one. Using the legendary Pokémon, Uxie, Azelf and Mesprit, Team Galactic made a red chain to summon the two legendary Pokémon of time and space, Dialga and Palkia, and used them to destroy the world and create a new one. _

_Team Galactic succeeded, but their new world was not as perfect as one could hope. The leaders of Team Galactic ruled as dictators through their "ideal" world, making rules that put them in power. _

_Pokémon were captured, used in the Galactic army or simply eliminated. The army was used to stop rebellious people. Pokémon battles were unheard of unless they were used to settle violent disputes. The Gym Leaders and Elite Four were put into prison._

_The world was in chaos. The once beautiful Sinnoh, now called Galacial, became a nothing but a wasteland._

_However, Team Galactic knew there was one unobtainable Pokemon that could stop them- the "time traveler". During their reign, they used all of their knowledge and power to obtain it._

_Finally, after ten years, they found what they were looking for. However, somebody had already beaten them to it and unexpectedly obtained the power to stop them..._

**Author's Notes**

Heh heh, really short chapter. Well, I'm posting up the next chapter soon. I just wanted to give background information about my story, so it makes sense.

Well, review and no flames please! I'll personally thank you in my **Author's Notes** the next time I update.

Thank you **grammaguy** for editing this story.

-**JapanDreamer**


	2. Time Traveling Part Two

**Disclaimer:** Throughout all of my stories I've written, I have not own Pokemon in any shape or form.

OMG! I think this is a new record! SEVEN REVIEWS in ONE DAY! Okay, now finished being hyper.

Well, I'm back with the second and final part! Okay, lots of suspense in this chapter. Enjoy! And Don't forget to read my** Author Notes**.

Thank you so much **grammaguy **for editing this story.

**Time Travel Prologue Part 2:**

Faster... faster... he needed to run faster. They were gaining on him; he would never be able to get away. He clutched the small Pokémon- the one they were after. He needed to get away. He had to protect the last wild Pokémon on earth- the Pokémon that could save them all.

He stumbled through the forest though it wasn't really a forest anymore. It looked like it had been through a wild fire and nothing was growing. Nothing grew here in this place anymore. He tripped on a root and fell to the ground. The Pokémon whimpered, holding on to his chest more tightly. He got back up and ignored the painful feeling in his ankle.

"You won't get away!" a voice said, far away. There were the sounds of footsteps, maybe a hundred of them or more. He continued to run, ignoring the voice. He didn't know where to go; he didn't know where he was. All he knew was that he needed to get away no matter what the consequences were. Suddenly, he stopped. In front of him was a dried out lake. It reached miles and miles around. A once majestic and beautiful place, now no more than a desert. He didn't have time to run around the lake, so he did what he needed to do.

He jump down the steep cliff and landed on the bottom of the bed. The bottom was filled with dry dirt and sand. Not a speck of water could be seen. He continued on, though it was harder to run on loose dirt. When he got to the middle of the lake, he realized he was in trouble.

Large shadows surrounded him at the bank of the lake. No matter where he went, he would get caught one way or another.

_Flash! _He was now surrounded by their Pokémon as well.

"Well, well, well, look what the Glameow brought in."

The leader, a red haired lady, stood at the edge, watching the little boy, "Game over, shorty. Surrender the Pokémon or we'll have to do it by force." She grinned at the horrified kid, who seemed to be lost in words.

He clutched the Pokémon tightly. There had to be a way out. There had to be...

Suddenly the Pokémon he was holding gave a loud cry. Its voice rang through the lake, like bells. He held the Pokémon in surprise. It was glowing green. Then the light seemed to absorb him, pulling him into something.

"Stop the Pokémon! Grab that kid!" The red hair lady screeched. The other members looked surprised but ordered their Pokémon to attack.

But suddenly, he wasn't there anymore.

The Pokémon sniffed around, confused that the target disappeared.

"Damn that kid," the lady said. She slammed her fist to the ground, making it crack. She frowned, looking at the horizon. This was not good. The boss would not be pleased with this when she made the report.

"Captain Mars, do you know where the kid went?" one of the subordinates asked. Mars stared into the dark, dusty sky. Was the "perfect" world supposed to look like this?

"That kid," Mars muttered, "went back in time."

...

He was drowning. All around him was water. He was slowly floating to the bottom. The Pokémon that he was holding had vansihed. He needed to breathe... breathe... He slowly swam up to the surface, and gasped for air. He looked around and saw for the first time in his life- a blue sky. He saw lush green forests and flocks of Starly flying through the sky.

_Am I dead? This is the most beautiful place I've ever seen. _He looked around and saw that he was in a lake. Coughing, he laid on his back to float in the water, wondering what had just happened to him. He was being chased then he ended up in a lake.

_What was going on? It seemed to be a dream. Or is this heaven?_

Then again if this was heaven, it wasn't so bad at all. Clean water for the first time that didn't come from pipes; the freshest air he had ever breathed in. This was the world that he wanted to live in. The world he thought could never exist.

He felt his energy slipping away, causing him to sink back into the water. He quickly looked around and saw that the bank of the river was not too far away.

He swam as best as he could, despite how tired and weak he felt. His arms felt like lead and his lungs burned like they were on fire. Using the rest of his strength, he pulled himself up onto the bank using the roots of the grass to hold on to. Sputtering, he crawled till he was completely out of the water.

Then he immediately fell unconscious.

**Author's Notes**

Hmmm... I wonder what that Pokemon was... LOL

I bet you all hate me because I ended the prologue like this.

Alright, glad that you've read it, but I have some bad news for those who want me to continue.

First off, for those who don't know me, I usually update once a week. However, for this story, I'm not going to update it for a loooong time. Why? Because I need to finish my **Rewritten **story first. Once I get close to finishing it, I'll update this story. (Right now, I have noooo idea how to continue this story. Still thinking.) Oh well, I'll **try** to update once a month, but that most likely will not happen.

Okay, now to thank my reviewers

**the shadow of hell**

Thanks so much for reviewing! I put this up really late and I thought nobody was going to review until the next day at the very least. Thanks :)

**SportyGurl1997**

Thanks for the review! Glad to know that it looks good. See ya in the **Johto** story!

**darkflame414**

Well, Mars appeared. nothing much to say. Hope you enjoy it.

**Brenediction**

Thanks for the fav. and the review. See ya A LOT later. (LOL)

**Lady of the DarkFire**

thanks for reading. means a lot to me. Thanks for the review and I'll see ya in **Johto**! (I'm going to post up the next chapter this weekend.)

**Reita**

Thanks for the review! Hope this chapter made it more interesting.

**grammaguy**

I don't have a lot of stories. Compare to most fanfiction writers, I have very little.

Yeah, I wanted to wait and see how many people like the first chapter before I posted the second. Thanks for the review and for editing.

Alright guys, review and no flames please!

-**JapanDreamer**


	3. On to Adventure Princess!

**Disclaimer: Why is it that you guys won't believe me?! I don't own Pokemon. You should know that by now. Shame on you. (lol jk)**

I'm such a liar. I bet everyone of you is staring at the computer, trying to kill me with your mind power (lol). Yes, I've updated even though I said I wasn't going to. The truth is that you guys convinced me to keep going.

All of your reviews said that you enjoy reading my story and wanted me to update. I felt really touch (seriously) by your reviews so I decided to continue to write. I'm going to try my best and update during the summer. Just to let you know, this story might only be updated only once per two weeks. Sorry, but its better than a month...

Anways enjoy the chapter.

**Chapter One**:

It was another sunny day in Twinleaf Town. Dawn woke up and her gray eyes squinted from the sunlight that was pouring out of her window. She was about to go back to sleep when she suddenly remembered that tomorrow was the big day! She hurried out of her pink frilly circular bed and opened the windows to let the breeze in.

Dawn went to her dressing table to brush her messy long black hair and put on yellow clips on the side of her head. She put on her white cloth hat that had a pink Pokeball symbol on the front and tied her red scarf around her neck. She sat on her overstuffed bed and put on her black stockings that went up to her knee. She took off her pink pajamas and put on her sleeveless black and pink mini dress with a white sleeveless shirt underneath.

There was a knock on her door and a maid appeared before her.

"Miss Berlitz," the maid announced, "your friend Damion is waiting outside. Apparently he has some big news for you and would like to discuss it during breakfast," She curtsyed at the same time.

"Thank you, Charity. Send him to the dining room. I'll be right there," Dawn said, smiling. The maid curtsied again before leaving and closing the door. Dawn put on some Magost perfume, making sure not to put too much like last time.

It's been over three years since she met Damion for the first time. She remembered that day clearly when she moved to Twinleaf Town. He was pretty much a loudmouth and bragger, but he does have a sweet side to him. Dawn hurried down the spiral staircases and walked through the mansion to the dining room.

Dawn came from a family of scholars that had run for more than twenty generations. She was the only child and the last descendent of the generation. Her family was one of the richest in the Sinnoh region. Today was a very special day for her because she had just turned fourteen, and the tradition of the family was that once a family member has turn fourteen, he or she would be allowed to travel around the world. In other words, tomorrow, Dawn could get her very first Pokemon! She couldn't wait to go to Professor Rowan's lab in Sandgem Town to personally get the first choice.

Dawn's father worked there as well and occasionally came home on the weekends to spend time with her. Her mother, on the other hand, was always out to compete in Pokemon Contests, so for most of the week, Dawn was alone in her house. That was, until she met Damion.

Damion would invite her on his crazy expeditions, so, even though they were pointless, it was fun to hang out with somebody her own age.

"Hello, Miss Berlitz," the butler in front of the dining room door said, "Damion has been waiting quite impatiently for you." Dawn smiled. Damion never changed.

"I'll apologize to him," Dawn responded, "What's on today's menu, James?"

"The usual," James said, opening the grand oak door. The room had twelve chandeliers hanging from the ceiling, glittering in the sunlight. The long table, about 20 feet long, could hold 30 people along with all six of their Pokemon. Large windows were uniformly lined up down the wall, revealing the beautiful outdoors.

Dawn walked in, and noticed a blonde boy who was sitting in one of the chairs very impatiently. His hair stood out in every direction like he didn't brush it this morning. Then again, he never brushed it. His hazel eyes glared at Dawn, while she looked back without fear. He wore an orange and white stripe short sleeve jacket and a green scarf around his neck. He wore black pants and brown loafers. On the chair next to him was a brown bag that could be worn on the shoulder.

"You're _late_, Dawn," the boy said, scowling. Dawn rolled her eyes. That was one of the flaws of having Damion as your friend. He was always impatient.

"Sorry, I just got up," Dawn said, shrugging. The maid behind Dawn, help her get seated in the chair across from Damion. Immediately two butlers came with two large silver dome plates and placed it in front of Dawn and Damion. Both butlers removed the top to reveal bacon and scrambled eggs, with tomatoes and mushrooms on the side.

"Thanks guys," Dawn said, "you are all excused." The butlers and maids bowed and left the room, leaving Dawn and her guest alone.

"I got great news!" Damion said, grinning as he ate. Bits of food came flying everywhere as he talked, making Dawn very glad that she was sitting three feet away from him.

"Yes, I already know that we're receiving our Pokemon and starting our adventure tomorrow," Dawn said, as she delicately cut her food into small pieces before putting it into her mouth, "Or is this something else?"

"Something else," Damion said, rolling his eyes, "Did you watch the news last night?"

"No," Dawn said evenly, "You know perfectly well I don't listen to that garbage load of ju-"

"Anyways," Damion said, ignoring Dawn's comment, "Last night they talked about on the news that there was a red Gyarados living in a lake!" Dawn immediately frowned at this news. A red Gyarados? Only blue ones existed.

"What's your point?" Dawn asked, not looking as interested as Damion hoped.

"Well, what if there's a red Gyarados in Lake Verity?" Damion said, his eyes gleaming with excitement. Dawn paused a moment to think.

Lake Verity was the largest lake near Twinleaf Town. Legends said that a rare Pokemon resides in that place, but the likelihood of a Gyarados, let a lone a red one, being there was next to impossible. She didn't see a point in wasting their perfectly good summer over something so trivial. And there was another reason why Dawn didn't want to go to the lake.

"Damion, our parents had said that we shouldn't go near the lake without parent supervision," Dawn said. Damion rolled his eyes with impatience.

"We're not going to _stay_ there, dummy," Damion said exasperatedly, " just_ investingating_. No big deal. Don't tell me you're chickening out already."

"I'm not scared," Dawn snapped, "I'm more concerned about following instructions then doing things by impulse." Damion grinned at Dawn's angry expression.

"But there's no fun if you follow rules!" Dawn groaned, but she could feel the excitement inside of her. She longed to do something fun and daring for once in her life.

"Fine, we'll go," Dawn snapped. Damion grinned.

"Knew you couldn't resist adventure."

"Oh, shut up." Dawn got up and out of her chair, "Get ready in twenty minutes. I'll be waiting outside your house."

"Okay, princess," Damion teased and before Dawn could hit him, he was already out the door.

Urgh, Damion just somehow always knew how to get on her nerves. She hurried upstairs to get her bag. She got to her doorstep and put on her pink boots.

"Where are you going today, Miss Berlitz?" Dawn saw one of her maids looking at her with curiosity.

"Oh, I'm going over to Damion's house," Dawn said which wasn't a complete lie.

"Very well," the maid nodded, "lunch is served at twelve o'clock. You can have Damion over if you want."

"Thanks," Dawn replied. She hurried down the gravel path and out of the steel gate. Her mansion was the largest on the street; then again, it was the only house on the street. The garden took up the entire road, revealing different types of exotic plants that came from different parts of the world. Dawn was always fascinated by the plants and memorized their names and looks by heart. In fact, she memorized everything in the books in her library that held hundred of year's worth of knowledge gathered by her ancestors. Her dream was to go out and travel around the world. The same dream that Damion had.

"Hey there you are!" Damion looked hyper as ever, "Come on let's go! I bet you a million dollars that the red Gyarados will be there." He was jumping up and down as if he was trying to imagine the money already in his hands.

"You don't even have a million dollars," Dawn said exasperatedly. Damion ignored her and ran up ahead to the path which leaded out of town and toward Sandgem Town. Dawn immediately followed her energetic friend.

Little did she know that they were going to find something, and it was going to change their destiny.

**Author's Notes**

Another suspense. (smiles at myself) Well at least I'm safe from you guys throwing stuff at me.

Okay, Dawn, Damion, and Lucas are going to have personalities from the game, manga, and show (well, Dawn is the only one in the show but you get what I'm saying).

Dawn, in the manga, is REALLY from a rich family. I did not make this up.

Anyways, I already got the next chapter up, but I'm going to wait for two more weeks before I post it up. (laughs while you scream "NOOOOO" lol)

Alright, now to thank the reviewers that made this chapter possible and convinced me to continue to update it.

**the shadow of hell**

alright! first again! I'm going to update **Rewritten** probably tomorrow because this weekend I'm busy (again) stupid graduation cermemony...

**Lady of the DarkFire**

Yes, you're right oh great one. You know what everything is going on in my story. (lol). I'm a bookworm too. That's how I get some of my ideas from. Right now I could actually predict what will happen at the end of a story, and 90 percent of the time, I'm right. Thanks so much for the reivew!

**grammaguy**

thanks so much for editing. Since you don't like fortune... (you mean the shipping right?) are you still willing to edit? Its okay if you don't want to. Alright thanks so much for your support! I look forward working with you during the summer.

**Jarkes**

heh, I didn't mention Lucas' name because I wanted suspense. Sorry but I thought it would make readers want to read more if they didn't actually know who it was.

Wow, Lukas. That's a really weird spelling.

You know the same thing happened to me when I wrote down the website and it deleted it the entire word, so I ended up writing only "Serbeii". (it just did it again...)

by the way, a question on your OC in **Johto**. What do you mean by "Jimmy joking about the irony because that's exactly how they first met"? Who's they?

And do you ask for your OC to be a childhood friend of Jimmy? I've already finish writing down the chapter, but I need to know for sure about these question I have. Respond soon!

**Brendiction**

LOL. yeah, happy now? Do you enjoy the other stories I wrote? well, its okay, you don't have to answer that question. Alright thanks for the review and consider yourself lucky that I decided to update.

**Reita**

Thanks for the review. I answered some of your questions by email. (I didn't want to put it here, cuz it was tooo long. lol)

**maripinkirby**

thanks a lot! I hope you'll continue to read it in the future!

Thanks so much for the reviews! Continue it up or I'll actually stop writing! LOL. And no flames please!

-**JapanDreamer**


	4. Who's that Pokemon?

**Disclaimer: Even if I go back into time before Pokemon was created, I still can't own Pokemon.**

After being threaten with mind powers, Red Wall books, and armies of Teletubbies and Barneys, I, **JapanDreamer**, decided to update for sake of staying alive. (lol)

I want to let you know that I'm going on vacation next week. SOOOO updates are limited for the next two weeks. That's why I'm posting this up early. (Now I need to find a way to stay alive through this.)

Thank you all for reviewing. Really I think this a new record. Three chapters and 27 reviews. O.O

Okay enjoy!

**Time Travel Chapter 2:**

"Do be _careful,_ Damion," Dawn warned as they went through the field. Up ahead was the forest that the lake was in. "We don't have Pokemon to defend ourselves if wild Pokemon attack us."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Damion said, rolling his eyes. Dawn could be such a worrywart sometimes. Nevertheless, he walked a little bit slower and more cautious. He stopped when they were just outside the forest's boundary.

"Well Dawn, this is it! We're about to embark on a discovery beyond our wildest dreams! On a journey to the great unknown. Also known as-"

"Could you please just hurry up and get in there Damion Pearl?" Dawn demanded. Without waiting for an answer, Dawn knocked Damion aside and stomped through the forest.

"Hey! Wait up! _I'm_ the leader of this group! Besides, I just wanted to make it more dramatic!" Damion hurried towards Dawn, who was looking at him with annoyance.

"Yeah, well, it's perfect," Dawn said sarcastically, "With your long annoying introduction, you have the chance to become a news reporter." Damion glared at Dawn. Dawn detested television because most of the stuff on television was (supposedly) lies, or just "utter nonsense". Calling Damion a potential news reporter was one of the hugest insults that she had for him.

"Alright, I'm sorry," Damion mumbled. Dawn was about to apologize as well for her rude behavior like she was taught, but she noticed two men walking down the road they were on just up ahead. When she got closer, she froze with mortifying fear when she recognized the faces.

"Daimon!" Dawn hissed, "Get off of the road." Before Damion could even object, Dawn pushed her friend into a bush and she, herself, hid behind it. She put her hand to over Damion's mouth and put her other hand to her lips. As the footsteps got closer, she started to shake with fear.

Please don't let him find me here. Please, please, please...

...

"Professor Rowan? Something the matter?" the younger of the two men asked. The older man, about fifty years old, looked at the side of the road as if he saw something suspicious, hiding. He shook his head after a while.

Professor Rowan, being fifty years old, had white hair and a moustache. He wore a long brown trench coat over his blue vest. He wore a white long sleeve collared shirt under his vest and a long dark brown tie. He had on black pants and brown loafers. He was a loner, who didn't like to talk a lot and always looked very serious no matter what.

"Nothing, Berlitz. It was probably a wild Pokemon," Rowan said dissmissively. He continued down the path, with John Berlitz, Dawn's father.

John Berlitz was the total opposite of Professor Rowan. John was around thirty years old, but he looked like he was twenty. He had on a pair of glasses and his short black hair looked like it hasn't been brushed for days no matter how hard he tried to straighten it. Despite his tired eyes, John smiled as if it naturally came to him. He wore a white lab coat with a sandy coloured long sleeve and brown pants. He wore white tennis shoes, which he preferred more because he spent more time outside researching than inside.

"Berlitz, your daughter will be coming to the lab to get her first Pokemon soon, right?" Rowan asked to be sure. John nodded and smiled.

"Yeah, she and her friend Damion. They'll come by tomorrow first thing in the morning." Rowan nodded. He sighed as he looked up into the sky. It's been a while since he came back from Sinnoh. There were more people living here, so studying in peace like before was limited.

"Have you gotten all of the data into the laptop?" Rowan asked again.

"Yes Professor. I have all of the files in the bag," John patted his briefcase that he was carrying, "But still, it was strange to see such a weird light from the lake today." Rowan nodded in agreement. This morning, Rowan saw through his lab window a bright flash of light that seemed to be where Lake Verity was. Because it was really early in the morning, nobody really noticed it or if they did, they didn't care. Rowan and John decided to investigate at the lake, only to find nothing out of place. The lake was as still as ever and a fine mist from yesterday's night light drizzle covered the lake like a white blanket. Nevertheless, Rowan and John decided to gather some data that might explain the mysterious light.

"Let's get back to the lab. Maybe we can find something." John nodded in agreement and the two men left the forest.

...

"Is he gone yet?" Damion whispered. His hair was now covered with twigs and leaves, thanks went to Dawn. He had a few scratches from the branches of the bush, but he didn't notice it.

He was completely relived that Professor Rowan and Dawn's dad missed them completely although Rowan was looking at the bush they were hiding in with suspicion. Although he didn't want to admit it, Rowan scared him a lot. Maybe it was his distant looking face, but whatever it was, Damion feared the man. Mr. Berlitz was probably even scarier when he got mad. Damion thanked every Pokemon he could think of for letting them get away easily.

"Yeah they left," Dawn whispered. She got out of the bush, pulling out stray leaves from her clothes and hat. "Thank goodness they didn't find us. Father would've grounded me for a month and wouldn't allow me to start on my Pokemon journey tomorrow." Damion nodded as he, unsuccessfully, got out some of the leaves from his hair and clothes. "Should we head back?"

"What are you crazy?" Damion asked like Dawn was insane, "That red Gyarados has got to be in there! We just need to find it!"

"My father," Dawn said, looking at Damion as if he was stupid, "and Professor Rowan just came from the lake."

"So?"

"SO, it means that if there was a red Gyarados, they would've found it before us." Damion frowned immediately. Why did he have to have a smart friend that had to ruin all of his plans?

"Look, pretend to be dumb for me and let's just go and investigate. Who knows?" Damion grinned, "We might find something that they missed."

"Are you insulting me and my intelligence?!" Dawn yelled, but before she could do anything to Damion, he was already running down the path to the lake.

Dawn made a mental note to murder Damien after all of this was through. Muttering slightly, she rushed after her friend.

...

"Whoo! So this is what Lake Verity looked like!" Damion said, as he looked at the enormous lake. This was the first time that Damion and Dawn came to the lake.

The mist had started to lift as the sunlight broke through the large trees. The lake was crystal clear that you can even see the bottom. In the middle of the lake was a small island, but because the lake was so big, Damion couldn't really tell what was on the land. "Alright, let's split up! Dawn you go that way," Damion pointed to the right side, "and I'll go this way." Damion pointed to the left. Before Dawn could say anything, Damion was already off to investigate.

"Don't stray off too far!" Dawn yelled, but Damion acted as though as he didn't hear anything. She sighed as she walked down along the bank. She stared at the shallow water, looking at her reflection.

Then feeling mischievous, she took off her boots and stockings and waded through the shallow water. The cool water felt pleasant to her feet and she considered wading even further down the lake. It would have been so nice to do this, but she would probably get punished by Sebastian, her personal butler, if he knew and probably scolded her saying that she could've caught a cold. Suddenly, she noticed a large brown object on the side of the lake. Feeling curious, she waded out of the water and climbed up the bank. She realized immediately what it was.

It was Rowan's briefcase.

_He must've accidentally left it here when he came by_, Dawn thought. Her first thought was to return the briefcase back to the professor, but if she did give it back, he would have undoubtedly asked her about how she got it in the first place. That was something that she didn't want to answer. Feeling uneasy, she decided to hold on to the briefcase and secretly leave it somewhere where Professor Rowan can get it back. She put back on her stockings and boots and grabbed the briefcase. Then she continued to explore the lake.

_Whooo..._

Dawn froze. What was that sound? She turned around, but found nothing behind her. She decided that it must have been the wind and continued on.

_Whooo..._

There it was again. She looked around again, but still didn't find anything. Then, when she was about to freak out, she saw the creature that was making the noise floating just over the lake. She couldn't see it very well. It was like a shadowy image, but made out of water, distorting what was behind it. It was a very small creature, that had four long strand of hair, two on each side of its head. It had two long thin tails that fluttered around like small fans.

_What is that thing?_ Dawn wondered. The creature came closer to Dawn, not close enough for contact but close enough so that Dawn knew that it was looking at her. The creature made a cooing sound and flew toward along the lake and toward the bank just across from Dawn. Feeling curious, she hurried around the lake, but when she got to where the creature had run off to, it disappeared.

_That was strange, _Dawn thought as she clutched tightly onto the briefcase. She walked around the bank while looking at the lake in hopes of seeing the creature again.

Thump.

Dawn flailed her arms madly to try and keep balance. When she finally managed to grab a tree to steady herself, she looked down to see what she hit. Dawn almost collapsed in shock.

Lying unconscious on the ground was a boy.

**Author's Notes**

Another suspense. lol. I'm good at doing that. Okay remember I'm having a vacation next week. So enjoy whatever you guys are doing and I'll see you when I come back. (I'll probably be running from mind powers and armies for the rest of my vacation...)

Okay, thanking reviewers now!

**...**

**the shadow of hell**

yeah, the ceremony was BORING. About 300 people, or at least it felt like it, graduated and the whole thing lasted for two hours. And what did I do? sat there and secretly ate snacks since I was hungry.

I agree with you about the red Gyarados. Why even mention it if you can't catch it? (Reason why I made Dawn hate T.V.) Well I'm just going with the game, since it was the only idea I could think of that would convince Dawn and Damion to go over to the lake and make Damion sound like an idiot (to a certain degree).

thanks for the review. Rewritten will be posted probably this Friday.

**Jarkes**

Thanks for reviewing! I'll have the other chapters ready at least by Friday... If my editor fix it by then.

**Lady of the DarkFire**

Yeah, I think Lady Berlitz's name is Platinum as well. I saw the new outfits for the two main characters in the Platinum version game. Lucas looks a lot weirder now in my opinion (his outfit at least).

Hope your computer is okay though after reading that I'm not going to update for a while and its a suspense... you're probably going to throw a dictionary at it... lol.

**SportyGurl1997**

Hey! Thanks for the review! Have fun in the Phillipinesse (that is if you haven't gone yet...) I really want to go there. Well, actually, I really want to see the whole world, but that's probably not going to happen...

Hikari is the Japanese name for Dawn in the anime. They haven't given the "Dawn" in the manga a first name yet, but its probably going to be Platinum. Check serbii for more info.

**Beautiful Loner**

Hey! you change your name again! I like it! Very original and pretty in my opinion. Thanks for reviewing and I'm glad you like it. I'll see ya next time!

**Brenediction**

wow, mind bullets... I'm defintely going to get hit this time. You're probably mad since it'll be two MORE weeks before I update this story. I'm glad you like the Rewritten. Hope you won't kill me! thanks for the review!

**grammaguy**

haha, mind powers are hard to use. Besides if you kill me, there will be no more updates. XP

take your time in updating but if you don't finish by this week (Friday at the latest please) I won't be able to post it up for others to read. Thanks for editing for me!

**Amethyst-chan** (I get tired writing long names, sorry!)

Since I don't like Teletubbies and Barneys, I'll update. (I only like Seseme Street) If you haven't noticed yet, I usually update once a week, but for this story only once every two weeks. Check out my other stories if you have time. I would love your feedback. Thanks!

**Reita**

I'm glad we got things straighten out! thanks for reviewing; it means a lot to me.

**fatal whisper**

woo hoo! thanks for reviewing! Romance will not appear right now, but it'll later. I'm not a romantic person, but I'll do my best! See ya!

**...**

Okay thank you all for reviewing, and **_may the forces be with you_** (lol sorry I feel like saying that after I heard that **Star Wars: The Clones War** movie is coming out; I'm not a Star Wars fan but I love saying that line.)

see ya!

**-JapanDreamer**


	5. For the Birds

**Disclaimer: hello and welcome to another statement to show that JapanDreamer doesn't own Pokemon.**

Hey guys I'm back from my trip. Yay! Since two weeks have passed despite the fact I had a vacation, that means a new update. Yay! Okay, if you want to know about my trip, just to sum things up, it was cold and I had to wear a jacket. (sigh) I love cold weathers during summers.

OMG! I came back from my vacation and was SHOCKED to see **41** reviews in just four chapters! Amazing! I don't know how in the world this story got so popular all of the sudden. (seriously).

Oh! Read my **author notes** because I'm having a question that I want you guys to help me decide concerning with this story.

Enjoy this chapter and don't forget to review.

**Time Travel Chapter 3:**

Damion was walking along the bank of the river. Much to his disappointment, he couldn't see a single Gyarados, let alone a red one. He sighed as he lay down on the grass next to the bank. Looked like he had lost the bet... again. Now he owed Dawn... well, if he included the last twelve failed expeditions... that made… eh, forget it. Damion groaned. He was never good at math anyways. Besides Dawn never considered the bet seriously although she did threaten him to pay a couple of times.

"Ahhhhhh!"

Damion froze. That voice! It was Dawn! He got up and saw a group of Starly flying around where Dawn's voice was heard. Damion ran toward the Starls and cursed at himself. Why did he insist Dawn to go on this trip? Now she was in trouble! This was bad. This was very bad...

...

A while ago...

Dawn stood fearfully at the boy lying unconscious on his side in front of her. He had a red flat cap with blue Pokeball symbols on the side. His short wet jet black hair stuck out of his cap. He wore a short white sleeve shirt over a black vest. His navy blue cargo pants were wet with water and his red shoes were covered in mud. He was breathing heavily, and his face was covered in sweat and seemed to be red from the heat.

Dawn placed her hand to the boy's forehead and was shocked to feel the boy's forehead scalding.

_He has a fever_. Dawn thought. The boy groaned when Dawn put her hand to his head, and he started breath even more heavily.

_He won't last long like this_. Dawn needed to do something fast. She opened her bag and pulled out a small first aid kit. She took out some medicine pills and went to the lake to fill up her canteen with water. She dragged the boy and laid him upright against a tree. The boy woke up and weakly opened his eyes.

"Where... am… I?" He noticed a girl, about the same age as him, holding out the pills for him to eat, "Who... who are you?"

"Save your breath," she ordered, "Take this medicine and water." The boy, too weak to object, opened his mouth and swallowed the pill with water in the canteen. He shuddered as the pills went down his sore throat. What was going on? Why did his head hurt? Who was this girl?

"Well, that's all I can do," Dawn said, placing the first aid kit back into her bag. She sighed, wishing Damion was here. He could help her with the guy and carry him to her house. Right now, all she could do was wait and hope for the best. After a while the boy's breathing became calmer and his head didn't feel as hot as before. "So, who are you? And how did you fall unconscious here at Lake Verity?"

"Is that what this lake is called?" The boy struggled to stay awake as the girl looked at him for answers. He felt so tired and wanted to sleep.

"Yeah," Dawn said puzzled, "Didn't you read the sign just before you enter into the lake?"

"A sign? I don't know. I just appeared here," The boy looked just as confused as Dawn.

This boy was obviously clueless of where he was. But if that was the case... how did he get here in the first place? Dawn was about to ask the boy more questions when she heard a sound of wings behind her. She turned around and her puzzled face turned into horror.

"Ahhhhhh!"

"What wrong?" the boy asked. Then he realized that the answer was just in front of them. A whole flock of Starly came swooping at them and started attacking. He immediately tensed up. Those Pokémon didn't look happy and seemed to be aggressive.

"Get away!" Dawn swung her bag and started to hit the Starly, but it only made them more aggressive than before. The boy weakly got up.

"Don't you have any Pokémon you can use to battle with?" He asked, even though he could immediately tell she didn't by the looks of things.

"No!" Dawn yelled over the screeching cries, "Do you think I would be doing this if I have Pokémon?! I'm supposed to get my Pokémon tomorrow. Oh no, what're we going to do?" She bit her lips to stop crying. At this rate, they were not going to make it. The boy struggled to help. He noticed a briefcase lying on the ground, and grabbed it to hit one of the Starly. However, the clasp that held the briefcase broke and the lid of the briefcase open, revealing three Pokeballs.

Perfect! He could use one of the Pokémon in the Pokeballs to fight off the Starly. He grabbed the first one he saw and threw it into the air.

_Flash!_

...

"Dawn!" Damion had arrived to the scene. To his amazement, there weren't any Starly. Everything looked peaceful now. Then to his astonishment, he saw a guy, about his age, lying on the ground unconscious. He was clutching in his hand a Pokeball. Dawn was sitting onto the ground breathing heavily as if she had just run a marathon.

"Dawn? What-"

"Damion! I'm so glad you're here!" Dawn said, "I was attacked by a flock of Starly, but this kid here used one of Rowan's Pokémon from the briefcase I found here and-"

"Wait! What?" Damion said, dumbfounded, "How did you find this kid?" He pointed rudely at the unconscious boy.

"I found him next to the lake," Dawn said getting up and grabbing her stuff, "Come on help me get him back home. He has a fever. I'll explain everything when we get back to my house." Damion was about to protest, but Dawn gave him her "don't ask right now and you'll live" look. Damion grudgingly lifted the kid and put the kid's arm around his shoulder. Dawn grabbed the Pokeball the kid was holding and put it back into Professor Rowan's briefcase with the other Pokeballs.

"This kid weighs a ton," Damion muttered.

"Shut up. Stop complaining," Dawn snapped back.

"Who is he?"

"Don't know. I didn't get his name."

"What?! Didn't you ask for it like you normally do?"

"Look, shut up and let's go, you idiot!" Together the three kids left the lake.

**Author's Notes**

Okay, if you're wondering why I didn't just wrote about the battle, well, I was really lazy. XP

Also I didn't really know which Pokemon Lucas (Cough... spoilers... Cough) should use. I'm thinking Turtwig since that's what he has in the manga, but I dunno, I really don't like Turtwig (don't ask and don't flame; its my opinion).

Okay- BIG QUESTION THAT INVOLVES WITH YOU AS THE READER. Here goes, drumrolls please! (takes a huge breath)

**Should I have OCs in this story?**

I really don't know if I should. I was thinking about finishing this story in about 20 chapters, but seeing so many people like it, I was thinking prolounging (sp?) it by adding some OCs. Let me know if you want any. I'll decide by the amount of "yes" and "no" I get.

...

Right now to thank my thousands of reviewers.

**the shadow of hell**

hi hi hi! I'm back! Well, hope you enjoy this chapter and I'll have **Rewritten **posted maybe tomorrow, depending how busy I am.

**Jarkes**

Thanks for telling me that force has no "s".

Well, funny thing is that I bought a black t-shirt that had a moose in Darth Vader clothes with a forest in the background and in big words it said "May the Forest be with you" during my vacation. LOL. I had to buy that t-shirt.

Okay, **Rewritten **and** Johto** should be posted maybe tomorrow. See ya and thanks for the review!

**Beautiful Loner**

Hey, thanks for the reivew. Just to let you know the Bug Contest in **Johto **story is going to start in the next chapter and Honey will be performing! See ya!

**fatal whispher**

I KNOW- waiting for two weeks for a chapter to come up is PURE TORTURE. Its like waiting at midnight for the 7th book of Harry Potter. Good luck on your homework. I got Calculus, a Crime and Punishment essay, and other stuff to do. You think they would actually give us a break during the summer.

**Lady of the DarkFire**

Well, I'm back. Guess that computer is fixed by now. Well, **Johto** is going to be posted up tomorrow maybe. See ya and thanks for the review.

**darkflame414**

thanks for waiting for this update. Well, the legendary trio will play a bigger role later. MUCH LATER I must add. I'm trying to get the beginning of the plot started first. well, see ya in two weeks.

**SportyGurl1997**

How was/is the Phillipiness? Fun? Hot? Well, give a brief summary when you get back. Thanks for the review!

**Brendiction**

Hahaha! Wouldn't it be funny if I told you I lived in Hawaii? Then I wouldn't really be so "lucky" anymore. Lol. jk. I don't live in Hawaii. Anyways thanks for being concern for me. I had a safe trip so its not too bad. Thanks for the review!

**Henry X**

Yeah, I know the chapters are short, but that's because I have two others stories that I'm planning to update every week. My time is limited, but you already know that. Once I finish my story** Rewritten**, I'll start typing longer chapters. Thanks for the review and I hope you continue to read.

**RubyxSapphire**

Actually no, I don't/can't read the manga for two reasons. One, I can't read Japanese, despite my "name." Two, they don't have Pokemon Special on sale here where I live. What I did was go on some websites that talked about the manga and read the summary (really boring I must add). But hey, I needed to gather data for this story.

Yeah, Lucas/Dia eats a lot. It never ceases to amaze me that there is someone out there who could eat more than me. LOL. thanks for the review.

**SSX-77** (I get tired of writing long/complicated names, sorry!)

yeah, suspense can kill us all. XP I love making my chapters end with suspense. That way, I don't lose readers. LOL. Thanks for the review!

**Reita**

XD Yay, I'm back! Good to see you (well not "see SEE" but you get the idea). I'll have my other stories posted up hopefully by tomorrow.

**Sparky**

I sent an email concerning about the manga. Did you get it? I'm glad that you want to.

**xoxbb** (sorry, your name is long, so many "B" XP)

Glad you like the story, I hope you continue to read in the future. Thanks for the review.

...

Phew! that was a lot of thanking!

Okay, don't forget to tell me if you want any OCs or not in this story. Let me know and I'll decide from there.

By the way, I might put this question in Polls... If I figure out how that is...

see ya in two weeks!

**-JapanDreamer**


	6. Meet Lucas Diamond

**Disclaimer: Despite how tempting it is... I do not own Pokemon. Sorry guys!**

Hey guys new chapter! How are you guys doing after TWO weeks of no update? (Heh heh)

Thanks for giving sugestions on OCs. That means that you DO read my author notes. LOL.

Anyways, that question about OCs is now on polls. Just go to my profile and on the top it'll have the voting thing. I'll determine in about two weeks maybe.

Okay on to the chapter!

**Chapter 4:**

"Well, he'll be fine. With good rest and some peace and quiet, he'll be back to normal. I've already given him some medicine, so all we can do right now is to wait until he wakes up."

"Thank you, Dr. Wren," Dawn said, "Sorry for calling you on your day off."

Dawn and Damion were listening to the doctor's explanation in the sitting room. The mysterious boy had been sent into one of the guest rooms. Sebastian, her butler, changed the boy into some clothes to wash his wet and dirty ones. Then Dawn called the family's personal doctor to check up on the boy.

"No no, it's fine. Just let me know if there are any more problems," Dr. Wren said, gathering his medical instruments. He bowed in respect, got up from the sitting room, and left.

"So," Damion said after the doctor left, "you mind telling me exactly what the heck was going on at the lake?" Dawn shrugged her shoulders. She was still thinking about the boy she just met. Who was he? Where did he come from? Dawn hoped the guy woke up soon so she could ask these questions.

"Look, I told you, he summoned one of Professor's Rowan's Pokemon and managed to battle off all those Starly. Let's wait, okay? I don't want anybody else to eavesdrop on this conversation." After they left Rowan's briefcase in front of the lab's door and came back to Dawn's house, Dawn and Damion had to "lie" to Sebastian and the other servants where they found the boy, but they were still suspicious even though it sounded reasonable that Dawn and Damion could have just simply found him on the road.

"Okay, fine," Damion said, shrugging but looking unconvinced.

"Miss Berlitz," a voice said from behind. Dawn turned around and saw it was Sebastian, who was holding a bundle of items in his arms.

"Yes, Sebastian?" Dawn asked, "What's that?"

"Oh, some things from the young gentleman that I found in his clothes and bag," Sebastian responded as he put them down on the coffee table. "When he wakes up, please give the stuff back to him."

"We'll do that," Dawn assured him. Sebastian bowed and left the room. Almost immediately, Damion started rummaging through the pile.

"Damion!" Dawn hissed, "It's not polite to go through other people's stuff."

"Keys, strange maps, potato chip bags," Damion muttered, opening the bags and chewing on some of the potato chips, "A bit on the salty side. Aha! Identification card! Just what we're looking for."

"Damion! You're not listening!" Dawn was about to hit Damion when he shoved a small rectangular plastic laminated card up at Dawn's face. She immediately recognized the boy in the picture.

On top of the ID was the boy's name printed in bold letters - Lucas Diamond. On the left side of the ID was the picture of Lucas. He stood up straight, erect in his outfit as if he was proud, but in his eyes, Dawn detected sadness, misery, and something else. Dawn was skimming through the info when she found herself staring at the numbers next to 'Date of Birth'. She snatched the card from Damion's hand and stared.

"No way," Dawn gasped, "This is impossible.

Damion looked at the numbers and stared wide eye with shock as well. He may not have been good with numbers but he knew that what he was looking at was just plain crazy.

"Lucas Diamond," Dawn muttered. "Just who is he?" She looked up to the room upstairs where Lucas was sleeping.

"Well, at least we now know what to ask him first now."

...

Lucas...

Lucas groggily looked around. He was standing in the middle of... nowhere. The whole place was white. Hesitantly, he took a step forward. When his foot hit the ground, a small white ripple appeared, increasing in size until he couldn't see it anymore.

What is this place?

A small green light appeared floating down from the white sky until it was eye to eye with Lucas. Suddenly out of the light, a young lady stood in front of him.

She was about the same age as Lucas, but her sapphire eyes made her looked wiser and older. She had long flowing brown hair that was slightly wavy and curly. A thick strand of brown hair on the side of her head was braided, and green vines that were dotted with white flowers were woven into it. On the very top of her head was a green headband. Her flowing light green sleeveless dress billowed even though there was no wind. Her dark forest green flip flops barely touched the ground. It almost seemed like she was floating.

"Who are you?" Lucas asked, staring at the bizarre appearance of the girl. Instead of responding, the girl looked at Lucas with her soft sad sapphire eyes.

_Be careful... danger approaches... please save us...! _the girl whispered through Lucas' mind. She slowly started to fade away.

"W- wait!" Lucas screamed. He reached out to grab the girl, but it was too late. The mysterious girl was gone, leaving Lucas all alone again. The white place was glowing brightly now, causing Lucas to squint from the brightness. The intensity increased until finally it started to become dimmer.

When he opened his eyes, Lucas found himself staring at a ceiling. He looked around and saw that he was lying on a bed. He slowly got up into a sitting position and realized that he wasn't wearing his usual clothes, but somebody's old pajamas.

The room Lucas was in was lavishly furnished even though it looked simple. The bed was king-size. There was a flat screen T.V. and a giant wardrobe to put clothes in. Lucas gaped at the lavish place. He had never been in such an expensive room before.

"Heh, never seen a luxurious place before, huh?" Lucas looked widely around and saw a boy with messy blond hair sitting in a chair next to the bed. "Well, looks like we have some stuff to discuss, Lucas Diamond."

**Author's Notes**

Yay, more suspense. LOL. I have no idea what to write after this so updates might take a longer time.

I realize that if I take only SOME of the OCs. The rest of you guys will hate me if I don't pick your OCs. So I'm now having some doubt asking for them.

Remember about my polls.

Okay now to thank the reviewers! (I'm starting to think I need to thank you personally to save space...)

...

**SS-77**

thanks for the review. thanks for suggesting which pokemon Lucas should have. I'll keep that in mind. See ya!

**Lady of the DarkFire**

Err, in your review you wrote "Pearl is a good battler." (O.O) Um, I think you mean Diamond...

Oh well, thanks so much for the review.

J**arkes**

thanks for the review. How was summer camp?

**ChoklitKisses**

Hey there! New reviewer! thanks so much for reading. see ya!

**the shadow of hell**

Thanks for the compliment. see ya in **Rewritten**!

**xoxbb**

HAHA! I wish I was addicted to Pokemon fanfiction, but I don't have time to surf through the net and read them all. Thanks for the review!

**Anon**

thanks **Anon** for the suggestion. I'll keep that in mind when I write this story. thanks for the review.

**Brenediction**

Hey there! Um, in your last review you said you cook "soul" food. (O.O) So does that mean you cook people's souls or you talking about you put your "soul" into the food you cook?

By the way is that Head chef back? Well, enjoy your video games and see ya.

**Sparky**

Okay, I tried to send you an email again, using the email you provide when you send a review, but apparently my server can't find it. And when you reviewed to show me your email address, well, let's just say there was a huge blank.

When you write an email address, fanfiction takes it off for some reason. (Don't ask why, I just learned from past attempts.) I think if you put quotes around the email addresss, it should work. I guess we'll have to talk through reviews for now though, so here is what I wanted to say when I tried to email to you.

**"**OMG! If you make a manga out of this story, I'll hug you to death. Well, not hug you to death, but I'll start acting hyper. Anyways, even though I'm letting you make a manga out of this, as the author, I want to see the works of your manga as well. (Since I'm a manga freak.)

Can you "somehow" find a way to show me some stuff you've made like a cover page or a character page or something? That would be really great. Thank you so much.**"**

Okay, Sparky. This is a long reply so YOU BETTER reply back soon. LOL. If things get desperate, I guess I'll just give you my email address...

See ya!

**Amethyst**

Oh gosh, you're going to eat me. Guess I'll update faster. LOL. Well, thanks for the review.

**Unknown**

Heh, I was plannning one of the main characters to get a Lucario, but I guess an OC with one wouldn't be too bad. thanks for the suggestion and the review!

**Reita**

Good news, this story might be turned into a manga series. That is if I can find a way to comunicate with **Sparky**... Thanks for the review!

...

OMG, long time to thank people...

thanks so much for reading and don't forget to review!

See ya!

**-JapanDreamer**


	7. You Were Never Suppose to Exist

**Disclaimer: CAN'T OWN POKEMON. Unless they give me the right as a present on my birthday.**

GUESS WHAT? TODAY'S MY BIRTHDAY! yay!

Guess what? This chapter is longer than usual. Yay!

Guess what? Updates are still going to be slow. (silence)

LOL. I have question on the bottom that I need your help in answering.

**WARNING**: The following chapter contains some violence. I do not support violence, so please do not try it at home. Or at least not to someone the way Damion does it. :)

Enjoy the chapter.

**Chapter 5:**

Dawn sat on the sofa with great impatience. Damion had _insisted_ that he ask this 'Lucas' guy alone since they were both guys and it would be more comfortable. Even though, for once, Damion made sense, it still made Dawn irritated. She wanted to know more about Lucas. The way he battled was amazing. He obviously had training if he could take down a whole flock of Starly with a new Pokémon. Dawn groaned as she once again looked up at the room where Damion was talking to Lucas. She could hear screaming and gagging for some reason.

What was going on up there?

...

"I'm sorry, what?" Lucas asked confused at Damion's serious face.

"Apparently you're more mysterious than what we thought," Damion carefully, trying to sound dramatic. "Apparently you're hiding things from us. Well guess what? As we were digging through your stuff, me and my co-worker noticed something particular about-" Damion stopped talking when he realized that Lucas was looking out at the window, not listening to a word Damion said. "ARE YOU LISTENING TO ME?! DIDN'T SOMEBODY TEACH YOU MANNERS?!"

"Arghh," Lucas couldn't say much else, even if he was taught polite manners. Not with Damion squeezing his throat half to death.

"_Mister Damion_! What are you doing?!" Damion looked around with Lucas still gagging, and saw that Sebastian had somehow mysteriously entered the room without making a sound. "Really, you're going to hurt the young man." Damion looked at Lucas clearly for the first time and saw that Lucas was about to have a seizure if he didn't take a breath.

"Oops, sorry," Damion said, letting go of Lucas' throat. Lucas gasped for air, trying to breath.

"Mister Damion, do _not_ do that again! The young man is our guest and we shall treat him as such."

"Okay, okay," Damion said groaning. Why couldn't he ever get his way? "Why did you come here?"

"Oh, I came to bring the young man's clothes. They are cleaned now." Sebastian revealed in his arms the clothes that Lucas was wearing.

"Okay, thanks old man," Damion said, grabbing the clothes. Sebastian, highly offended by the word 'old man,' haughtily gave a swift bow before leaving the room.

"Remember to not hurt the young man again," Sebastian warned before he shut the door. Damion nodded obediently. Once Sebastian closed the door, the evil grin on Damion's face reappeared.

"Now where was I? Oh yeah! YOU! Can you explain to m-" Damion turned around the face Lucas again, only to find the bed empty and the window wide open. The curtains fluttered as a strong breeze came in.

Damion stared for an eternal moment. "RRRAAAAAGGGHH!"

...

"Now where was it?" Lucas muttered as he walked around the garden. After being choked to death by the evil blond guy, (Was his name Damion or Domion?) Lucas decided to leave the room. He jumped out of the window and landed safely on the garden hedge on the bottom. Lucas thought the blond kid couldn't miss him for a while. Besides he noticed something strange in the garden while he was looking out of the window. Lucas walked around, fascinated by the beautiful garden. The only place he saw a garden of flowers like this was in the headquarters and even there it wasn't as pretty as this place.

Lucas continued to walk around. He saw a couple of gardeners who were looking at him curiously. Lucas smiled and waved at them, who in turn waved back though uneasily, and continued to walk along the path. Suddenly, he noticed that something was moving in a patch of flowers. Lucas moved the flowers away to reveal something. He smiled.

Found ya!

...

"Stupid Damion. Now he's going to get it," Dawn grumbled as she stomped through the garden. After ten minutes of yelling at him, Dawn decided that they split up and try to find Lucas. Luckily for Dawn, some of her gardeners reported seeing a black hair boy in pajamas walking around in this part of the garden. She finally spotted Lucas in the daisy section of the garden.

Finally! She walked up to him and suddenly noticed that Lucas was crouching down and... laughing?

"Wow, I never expect to see your type here. What are you doing in a garden? You know flowers aren't grown as food," Lucas said, laughing. Dawn heard a loud 'glomp' sound in reply to Lucas' statement.

Type? Food? Dawn's head was spinning with questions as she walked closer to the strange guy. Lucas stopped laughing when he heard a crunching sound and looked to see the girl that had just saved him.

"Oh, h- hi Miss!" Lucas said, sputtering. He felt himself turn red in the face as the girl looked at him.

"My name is Dawn. Don't worry about introductions, I already know your name. So, who are you talking to?"

Lucas scooted to reveal the little, but fat, Pokémon with large pointy ears and large round eyes.

"Munchlax!" The Pokémon yawned while chewing the flowers in its mouth.

"Heh, it just doesn't stop eating," Lucas smiled, a goofy child-like kind of smile.

"What's a Pokémon like that doing here?" Dawn wondered out loud, "Those are rare."

"Maybe... maybe it just got hungry that's all," Lucas said, rubbing Munchlax's head. Munchlax closed his eyes and sighed as his ears were scratched.

Dawn paused for a moment. This guy was actually _great_ with Pokémon, despite the fact that he seemed kinda on the slow side when thinking. She sat next to Lucas, watching as the two become fast friends in a silent way.

"How long have you been working with Pokémon?"

"Since I was five," Lucas replied, "I've been helping injured Pokémon that got hurt from battle."

"Wow," Dawn said, "So do you work in the Pokémon Center to gain experience?" Lucas stopped scratching Munchlax and stared at Dawn with confusion. Dawn realized that something was wrong in what she said.

"Pokémon Center? There are no Pokémon Centers. They've been destroyed. I mean, civilians are banned from owning Pokémon, so there's no use for them." Dawn bulged her eyes out with shock after this comment.

"B-banned?! Why would they be banned? Pokémon Centers are everywhere! What century do you live in?" Lucas, dazed, was trying to figure out if the question was rhetorical or not when some large shadow tackled him to the ground.

"You thought you could escape huh?! Just who do you think you are?" Damion throttled Lucas by the throat again.

"Damion! You're killing him!"

"I wouldn't be if he had stayed put!" Damion continued to squeeze Lucas' throat, ignoring the gagging sound coming from his mouth.

"Okay, Damion," Dawn said in her 'I'm going to kill you' dangerous tone, "Maybe Lucas wouldn't have escaped if you didn't choke him in the first place. Now, let go of the guy so we can ask him questions." Damion was about to object until he saw Dawn's evil glare and decided not to.

"Okay, fine," Damion mumbled, letting go of Lucas' throat.

"Is... gasp... it tradition... gasp... to choke... people to... gasp... death... gasp... around here?" Lucas massaged his throat as he spoke.

"Well, in Damion's world of violence, absolutely," Dawn said angrily, though her anger was directed to Damion.

"Geez, _sorry_! Got carried away." Damion shrugged, "Sorry Lucas." Lucas didn't respond, still trying to catch his breath.

"Lucas, let's go back to the room. Then you have to explain to us exactly who you are." Lucas looked up confused. Well, judging how this place doesn't even look like home, and how everything seemed to run around totally opposite from where he lives, Lucas guessed that maybe some explanation would be good.

"Yeah, guess you guys have questions like I do," Lucas mumbled.

...

"It's nice to be back into my old clothes," Lucas sighed in relief as he put on his red cap. When the three arrived back to the room, Lucas decided to put back on his original clothes. Of course, Dawn and Damion waited outside.

"You're done," Damion said from the other side of the door. He quickly opened up and looked around the room, making sure Lucas wouldn't escape again. "Wait a minute, what's that Pokémon doing in this room?"

Munchlax was standing next to Lucas, asleep on the bed.

"Oh," Lucas said, noticing where Damion was pointing, "Munchlax came in through the window. Guess he didn't want to be alone." Damion groaned. What was with this kid and wild Pokémon?

"Okay, let's get to the point," Dawn interrupted. "Lucas, I want you to look at your identification card and tell me the large error in it." She handed Lucas the plastic rectangular card.

Lucas carefully looked at the card, trying to figure out what was wrong.

"Is my outfit crooked?" Damion smacked Lucas' head.

"ARE YOU TRYING TO MAKE THIS SITUATION FUNNY?!"

"Well, that's the only thing I can think of that's wrong," Lucas winced, rubbing the spot where Damion had hit, "My boss even complained to me about it once."

"No, Lucas. We didn't find anything wrong with your outfit," Dawn said, struggling to pull Damion away from Lucas, "Look at the date of your birth." Lucas looked at the place where it said 'Date of Birth' for a long time before he responded.

"I'm pretty sure this is the date I was born. Seriously, is it not my outfit in the picture?"

"NOW YOU'RE GOING TO GET IT!"

"Damion, I swear I'll murder you myself if you touch him again," Dawn snapped, trying to hold on to the flailing boy. "Lucas," Dawn said turning to him, "The date_ is_ a problem."

"Why?"

"Well, according to the date, you're supposed to be born fourteen years from now."

**Author's Notes**

more suspense, more suspense. how I love suspense. LOL.

Well, I tried adding humor (I suck at doing that.), and we just learn more about Lucas' personality.

Remember violence does not solve _anything_.

**I HAVE QUESTIONS AND I NEED YOUR HELP!!**

I'm thinking about having Pokemon Gym battles and/or Contests. They can help prolong the story, but that means three battles for each gym battle/contest, and less OCs. What do you guys think?

Another question- What Pokemon should Dawn, Lucas, and Damion have (not the starters)? In the manga, they each have two Pokemon (except Lucas. He has like five right now.) I have trouble deciding, especially Damion since he is not in the anime. I WANT SUGGESTIONS ONLY! I'm deciding in the end, but I want to know what you guys think. NO LEGENDARY POKEMON by the way.

Now to thank the reviewers!

...

**Lady of DarkFire**

yes, I love it when my readers scream with pain and start hypervenilating when I end with a cliff hanger and its killing them. Though I perfer it that they're far away from me so that they can't kill me. LOL. Thanks for the review!

**the shadow of hell**

Thanks for the review! Well, it'll be a while before I show Lucas' battle, but hold tight!

**grammaguy**

thanks for editing and for the review. I'll see you later.

**Brenediction**

Well, there's more suspense. Guess you're back to being like a zombie craving for human flesh. LOL. thanks for the review.

**Jarkes**

That's a good guess of what's going to happen to Lucas. I already figured out the ending of this story despite the fact I haven't figure out the middle. (how funny. Usually its the ending that most people have trouble with.) I hoping that people will read it and think of it as a happy ending though.

Well, I haven't play Mystery Dungeon. Is it good? thanks for the review.

**SSX77**

Good, that means I'm doing my job with the suspense. Well, I haven't decided on OCs yet. I'm really iffy on it. thanks for the review.

**xoxbb**

Good job. I'm glad your patience is better. thanks for the review.

**Sparky09**

Hey **Sparky. **thanks for singing happy b-day to me in a different language, though I kinda wish I knew how it sounds like. Thanks for the review.

**RubyXSapphire**

Yeah, I don't think there is a lot of frantic shipping (say, just curious, what does that have to do with this story by the way?). I think its because the manga is not as well know as the anime.

Well, I only know one beta reader and that is **grammaguy**. He is my beta reader, and he's pretty good. Ask him if he could beta for you. thanks for the review.

**darkflame414**

Well, there is some torture. Hopefully, Damion will learn how to control his temper. thanks for the review.

**Reita**

Thanks for the review.

**Amethyst**

Thanks for the review.

...

Okay thanks for the reviews guys!

HERE IS WHAT I WANT FOR MY BIRTHDAY FROM YOU GUYS! You don't even have to buy it at the store.

What I want from you guys is to see if we can get 100 reviews in 10 chapter or less. It'll be a new record for me.

REVIEW OR YOU JUST MADE MY B-DAY DEPRESSING! LOL. jk.

See ya!

**-JapanDreamer**


	8. I Know He Doesn’t Want Us to Know

**Disclaimer: This account does not own Pokemon.**

Hey guys! Two weeks has passed. You know what that means. UPDATE! This update is early because I'm so busy this week, and I'm afraid I'll forget to update.

Okay, school is almost starting for me. **SO** updates are limited, especially in the fall. I might not even be able to update for months. Please try to understand that I'm really busy and I write as a hobby, not as a job, though it would be sweet if I could get money from this... lol.

All right guys I have finally decided to use OCs in this story. HOWEVER, I want each of you to solemly swear that you'll not kill me if I don't use your OC. There's a limited space. How many I use depends on how I feel.

I also finally decided to have Pokemon contests and battles in a limited way, and I decided what Pokemon Dawn, Lucas, and Damion should have.

Judging that I have so many things to add to my story, I'm thinking about extending the story line. Sigh. Back to work for me. lol.

thanks for saying happy b-day to me!

Enjoy the chapter!

**Chapter 6:**

Lucas looked dumbfounded for a few minutes at the two uneasy people before realizing what they were trying to imply.

"Ohhhhh," Lucas said nodding his head thoughtfully then stopped all of a sudden, "Wait, what does that mean?" Damion slapped his face in despair. How slow can a person be? Even Dawn was sighing with frustration.

"It means," Dawn said exasperatedly, "That either the people who made your card did a big mistake or you somehow managed to time travel." Lucas thought for a moment, trying to decide which choice sounded more reasonable.

"Yeah," Lucas replied, "Maybe it was because I time traveled."

"That part was supposed to be sarcastic."

"Oh."

"Although," Dawn paused for a second thought, "The way you have acted to everything around you makes it seem like you just came from another planet."

"Then that must be the reason."

"That part was sarcastic as well."

"Oh."

"Listen dummy," Damion growled, "Either you explain why you just suddenly appear or you're going to get your-"

"Damion! That won't solve anything!" Dawn snapped, "Listen, I don't even think Lucas knows what's going on. Do you?" Lucas shook his head automatically.

"Nope, I'm just as clueless as you are," Lucas replied. Dawn sighed. Nothing was making sense at all. She had no idea what to do.

"Okay Damion I need to talk to you in private outside. Lucas, can you wait here for a moment?"

"Sure," Lucas nodded. The two kids left the room, though Damion glared at Lucas with a 'escape this room again and you'll die' look. Lucas gulped. He never met such a strange kid before. As soon as the door was closed, Lucas fell onto the bed next to Muchlax. Muchlax mumbled in his sleep before tossing and turning to the other side.

Lucas has a feeling he know what's going on, but he decided not to tell the two people. He can't get other people involve.

...

"What do you think?"

"I think that little brat is hiding something and we need to go back in there and-"

"Damion! Listen, I agree with you that something is wrong, but what can we do? He looks as confused as we do."

"He just wants you to think that."

"Damion stop suspecting him!" Dawn snapped, "Look, we'll ask him about where he lives and his past. Maybe we can find a clue from there."

"Okay fine," Damion said, "But if he starts acting strange again, I get to hit him okay?" Before Dawn could say 'no and if you do I'll send you to the hospital with a broken arm' to that question, she heard a voice behind her.

"Miss Berlitz." Dawn turned around and saw one of the maids behind her.

"Oh hi, Melinda," Dawn replied, wondering if Melinda was eavesdropping, "Is there something wrong?"

"Oh nothing," Melinda replied, "Just that dinner is almost ready so why don't you come downstairs and eat. The young man can eat in his room since he is still fragile."

"Yeah," Damion mumbled, "That kid is just pretending that he is still weak to-"

"Yes of course," Dawn cut in, "We'll be down in a second." Melinda gave a curtsy and walked back downstairs.

"How do you remember these people's names?" Damion asked amazed.

"They have name tags idiot," Dawn replied.

"Oh, that explains," Damion said thoughtfully. Dawn sighed. She has no idea who is acting more hopeless- Lucas or Damion?

...

"Wow, so this is what real food taste like," Lucas said amazed. He never had such a filling dinner before, then again, he never had a chance to eat a lot. With the help of Muchlax, Lucas was able to finish ten plates of lasagna and chicken. The butler was pretty amazed at Lucas' ability to eat.

Lucas scratched Muchlax's ears while the Pokemon smacked its lips and rubbed its oversized belly. Lucas walked around the room, thinking of his options. By the looks of those two people, Lucas guessed that they'll probably make him stay in this house longer than he wanted to. Feeling tired, he laid his head against the pillow and before he could give today's events anymore thought, he fell asleep.

...

"He's asleep," Dawn whispered. After she and Damion finished eating, they went back upstairs to check up on Lucas and found him sleeping peacefully on the bed.

"Let's go and wake him up," Damion said, cracking his knuckles.

"No," Dawn pulled Damion away from the door, "Let's wait till tomorrow."

"But-"

"No buts," Dawn snapped, "Besides, tomorrow is the big day. We're going to get our own Pokemon. Professor Rowan wants us to be there in the morning."  
"What do we do about the kid?" Damion asked.

"We'll take him with us;" Dawn said readily, "Maybe the professor knows what is going on with Lucas."  
"Well, I don't mind, but I'm worried that he'll escape again."

"Just don't choke him and he won't."

"Hey, are you saying that it is MY fault that he escaped before?"

"You don't want me to answer that."

...

The girl was back.

Lucas opened his eyes and found himself face to face with the girl he had dreamed just a while ago.

"Whoa!" Lucas, feeling that he was too close to the girl, took a step back and almost tripped, "Sorry about that." The girl smiled at Lucas' clumsiness.

"You know where you are right?" Lucas shrugged his shoulders.

"I have a feeling I know where, but why me?" The girl closed her tired sapphire eyes before addressing to Lucas.

"That I can not answer. However, you must hurry. Times ticking and I don't think there will be a second chance." Lucas nodded slowly before he realized what that means.

"But, I'm just a kid," Lucas sputtered, "Couldn't somebody else do it?" The girl smiled sympathetically at Lucas fearful face.

"Please, you must help this place... please... this place... will no longer... be..." The girl's face slowly vanished, leaving Lucas all alone again.

How? How am I... going to solve this crisis...?

...

Lucas was awake again, only this time it was dead of the night. Muchlax was snoring peacefully next to him. Without hesitation, Lucas got out of the bed. He grabbed the items and put them into his bag. He looked at the mirror and fixed his red flat cap. Then he opened the window. A light breeze poured, bringing in the fresh smell of cool air. Taking a huge breath, Lucas jumped out of the window and landed safely onto the ground. Then after taking a look back at the house, Lucas ran off into the night, hoping to solve this crisis which, unfortunately, he doesn't know how.

**Author's Notes**

Lucas has decided to escape again... without Muchlax... LOL.

Okay, listen up!

**IF YOU WANT YOUR OC TO HAVE A CHANCE IN BEING IN THIS STORY THEN YOU'LL HAVE TO DO EVERYTHING I ASK YOU TO DO**.

**I WANT IT IN A REVIEW! NOT IN A PM**! It'll be easier to find your OC instead of going through all the junk mail I get, trying to find yours.

...

1) Copy and paste the statement below to your review. (If you do not put this statement in your review, then I'll not even CONSIDER using your OC. 

I have submitted an OC to J**apanDreamer**. If she does not accept my OC in the story, then I solemly swear that I will not in any shape or form, kill or flame her. The OCs here are only to prolong the story and still allow reviewers a chance to be a part of it. I consider myself lucky that **JapanDreamer** even wanted to put out OCs and should be very grateful.

2) Now I want you to follow the procedure below when submitting your OC. Anything missing and your OC will not be used.

**Name**: (As in what is your OC's name)

**Age**: (I want an age because I'll be able to figure out how Lucas and the others treat your OC)

**Occupation**: (jobs, trainer, coordinator, breeder, etc.)

**Pokemon:** (Up to six Pokemon ONLY!) No legendary, no shiny. But you're allowed nicknames.

**Personality**: (Please tell me what your OC is like. Or else I'm going to guess.)

**Appearance:** (What does your OC look like? Hair, eyes, skin, clothes, etc. basically physical apperance)

**Where do you want your OC to be:** (Like where do you want your OC to show up? Random battle, contest, etc.)

**Love Interest**: (I don't care if your OC hates everybody in the world. JUST TELL ME!!)

**Future Apperance**: (What happens to your OC in the future? Like when Galactic ruled over the world, where was your OC?)

**Others**: (Stuff you want to add.)

3) Submit into review form

...

Sorry if I sound mean. I'm acting harsh because apparently quite a few people cannot follow directions in my life. Trust me, you'll feel very frustrated if somebody cannot even do a simple task correctly.

I don't know when the first OC will appear, so be patient. I need to get the plot going before I can add OCs okay?

Now to thank my reviewers.

...

**the shadow of hell**

Thanks for the review. Good luck in finding the manga. I can't find it at all.

**ChoklitKisses**

thanks for the review.

**Fireblast123**

thanks for the suggested Pokemon. I'll see you next time.

**xoxbb**

thanks for the review.

**Brenediction**

thanks for the review. I'm so busy I'm literally falling asleep.

**Ignition 7**

glad you like my stories. thanks for the review.

**Sparky09**

thanks for the suggestions of the Pokemon the three should have.

**Lady of the DarkFire**

AHHHHH! Large pointy thing at me! lol. Thanks for the review.

**Jarkes**

Thanks for the review.

**SportyGurl1997**

thanks for all those reviews. O.O Hope you had a good time.

**Unknown**

ehh, its okay. I know there are those who don't even review at all, so its cool. thanks for the suggestions.

**CC411**

thanks for the review. I'm hurrying as best as I can.

**pkmnboy**

whew. For a moment there, I thought you didn't want to speak to me anymore. I know you can make a better story. Good luck!

**Ssx-77**

thanks for the suggestions.

...

thanks for the reviews and I'll see you on my next update. (Whenever that is...)

**-JapanDreamer**


	9. Release the Dogs!

**Disclaimer: How many people do you see owning Pokemon? One. And that lucky person is NOT me.**

100 REVIEWS!! YES! CONGRATS GUYS! Because of this, I've updated early. I started on this chapter a LONG time ago... so don't ask as to why its pretty long compare to my other stories' chapters this time.

I have put up a **poll** about my updates. Check it out and vote if you can because your votes _may affect my updates in the future_. (Scary music here.) lol.

My **Author's Notes** has all the decsions on the OC. SO YOU BETTER READ IT!

Enjoy the early chapter!

**Chapter 7:**

The sun came out from the horizon, spreading out red and orange rays of sunlight across the land. Starlys were chirping from their nests, getting ready for the new day. The smell of fresh dew hung in the air. Basically, it was a peaceful morning. Well, until Dawn broke the news for Damion that is...

"WHATTTT??" Damion roared. The whole foundation of Dawn's house shook from the powerful roar.

"I SAID HE'S GONE!!" Dawn yelled back, "AND STOP YELLING!"

"YOU'RE YELLING AS WELL!"

"WELL, YOU STOP FIRST!"

"I told you that leaving him alone is a bad idea," Damion frowned, "Great, now we're going to have to go find him."

"And how do you suggest that?" Dawn asked, frowning.

"We could release the dogs."

"Damion, we're not sending out the Houndoom and Arcanine out for such a petty search," Dawn snapped.

"But they can find Lucas faster than we can."

"Yeah, but they end up hurting the target in the end."

"Well, that's a plus right?"

"No." Dawn sighed and looked at the empty room that Lucas had slept in. She had came in the room early in the morning ready to go when she saw that the windows were open and the curtains were moving as the wind blew in. At first Dawn thought that Lucas was already awake and was somewhere in the house until one of the butler claimed that the boy was not in the house at all. And lying on the bed was Muchlax, who was right now awake, next to Dawn.

Muchlax looked at the two trainers as they continued to argue and he started to wonder where that friend he had just met ran off to.

"Damion, we have no choice but to wait before starting a search party," Dawn replied looking at the clock, which read 10:45, on the wall, "Professor Rowan is waiting for us already. We got to go."

"Shoot, you're right. I don't want to get on the wrong foot with Rowan on the first day," Damion said, looking at the clock as well, "We got to go. After we get our Pokemon, I'm going to use mine on that kid."

"Pokemon aren't used for violence!"

"Fine, then I'll choke him to death."

"People are not supposed to use violence either!"

"Whatever," Damion replied rolling his eyes, "say, what are we going to do with that?" He pointed at the Muchlax whose blank eyes stared back at the pointed finger without blinking.

"Let's bring it with us," Dawn said thoughtfully, "He might find Lucas for us."

"How would you know?" Damion asked confused. Dawn shrugged her shoulders, but gave a small smile at the round Pokemon.

"They're good friends. I can tell that Muchlax is looking for Lucas as much as we do."

...

Professor Rowan was writing down notes on a piece of paper while looking outside of the window. It was a nice and beautiful day. Normally, this would be the perfect time to go out and do some research. However, since Dawn and Damion are coming over very soon, Rowan has no choice but to hold off work until the two soon-to-be-trainers get their Pokemon.

"John, are your daughter and her friend coming here around 11?"

"Supposing," John replied, "But Damion is a bit on the slow side."

"Hmm," Rowan said, frowning. He really disliked people who seem to think that being slow is a good thing. He prefer to be quick and on time.

"Don't worry," John quickly said, noticing Rowan's frown, "They'll be back soon. I promise."

"Hopefully..." Rowan said, and without another word, he went back to work. John realized that Rowan's silence was the signal of dismissal and decided to leave the professor alone.

_Perhaps I'll go out and walk around a bit and see if anybody knew who gave us back the suitcase,_ John thought as he quickly left the lab. He got out on to the front steps and looked out at the scenery. Yesterday afternoon, he found the suitcase that Rowan left at the lake in front of the steps. Whoever decided to return it to the lab must have known that the suitcase was Rowan's in the first place.

_But why would that person just left it? Why didn't he or she just come over and gave it to us?_ Questions keep spinning around John's head. He walked down the street of Sandgem Town. Suddenly, he noticed a young boy running around the road in circles. He had a really confused looking face as he tried to figure out which way to go by walking around and reading the street signs. Apparently, this just made him more confused since his eyes were starting to swirl from dizziness.

John stared at the kid, wondering why he was acting this way. He went over to the kid and tapped his shoulder.

"Um, kid..."

"Huh?" the boy looked around, his eyes unfocused. Swirls could be seen in his eyes.

"Are you lost?" John asked. He stared at the kid with uncertainty.

"Kinda..." the kid shook his head from the dizziness, "I've never been here before so I don't know which way to go. I just started traveling."

"Say," John said, looking at the kid's clothes, "Are you a trainer yet?" John thought that the clothes the boy was wearing were pretty weird. Then again, John doesn't really know much about fashions these days.

"Uhh, no..."

"Well then, you can't go out into the world yet! You need a Pokemon to travel with you."

"Really?"

"Yeah, most young kids like you travel with a starter Pokemon. You should get one before you travel."

"But I don't have one." John was stumped at this reply and thought for a moment. Then an idea hit him.

"Well, Professor Rowan has three starter Pokemon you can choose from. My daughter and her friend are coming over soon. Why don't you take the third Pokemon and you three can travel together?"

"I guess," the boy shrugged his shoulders, uncertain.

"Well, the lab is this way. Follow me," John said, pointing to the lab. The boy nodded and John led the way, until he noticed that the boy was staggering in the opposite direction. "Uhh, you're going the wrong way."

"Oh, sorry," the boy turned a 180 degrees around and followed the scientist.

"By the way my name is John."

"Hello Mr. John," the boy said politely, "My name is Lucas."

**Author's Notes**

MUHAHAHAHA! Now what will happen?!

Okay about the OCs. I read them all and unfortunately I have trouble picking out which one I want to use. So... I'm going to use... I guess... all of them... But its only for now. Unless I REALLY want to get back to the main part of the story, I'll use the OCs I have right now.

Well, now to thank the reviewers who made it possible for me to get 100+ reviews in 8 chapters.

...

**the shadow of hell**

thanks for the review. I'm going to try my best in updating.

**Jarkes**

hmmm... Lucas' death is almost near... lol.

**CC411**

thanks for the OC and the review. I'm glad you really like this story.

**Blake Wilson**

thanks for the OC and review. Hope you continue to review.

**SportyGurl1997**

Yes, may the world realize that we don't need homework. lol.

**SsX-77**

Glad you like the story so far. And thanks for the OC.

**Lady of DarkFire**

Thanks for the review and OC. Hopefully, Lucas doesn't die or get chocked again. lol.

**X-Spark**

thanks for typing down the OC again. Most of the people I asked said it was okay to use their OC. I'll give you a list later.

thanks for the review and I'll see you later.

**Unknown**

well, you're 100th reviewer. Congrats. I'll use Blake Wilson's OC if I have a chance.

Yeah, Sparky had asked me for permission and I thought it wasnt a bad idea to do a side story. More promotion for my story. yay.

Thanks for the late b-day present and thanks for the reviews.

**xoxbb**

thanks for the review and the OC. However, random battle is really hard to do. Which person do you want your OC to battle with?

**renniegirl**

whoa, hold your horses, or in Pokemon terms, Ponyta. I'll update as soon as I can. I know you love the story, but as the author, it gets difficult to juggle this and real life. lol. don't worry, this story will be complete.

**Aiko**

Thanks for the OC. Listen, **Sparky** is doing a side story for this story. Is it okay if he uses your OC if I use your's in my story. Give me a reply back soon or else I won't use your OC.

...

Puff... puff... so many people reviewing...

Okay, thanks for reviewing guys. Updates are still unknown since I'm really busy. Just don't kill me if I update too late. Man, I wish I was in elementary school.

bye guys!

**-JapanDreamer**


	10. Numerous of Reunions

**Disclaimer: The ability to own Pokemon is unobtainable for me.**

Hello everybody.

You're probably wondering why I'm updating so early again. Well, the first week of school is over for me so I thought I should celebrate with an update (It feels like it has already been a month. no joke.) This is probably the last update fo the next one million years. lol. I have to study 3 tests and 5 quizzes next week, and I'm not counting homework, so don't kill me. I'm already deader than the dead itself.

Some people asked me to be more descriptive in my story and I tried in this chapter. Hope it's better.

Well, enjoy the chapter guys! Not a lot of violence, but the plot is starting now.

**Chapter 8**:

The sun was shining through the opened window in Professor Rowan's room. A small warm breeze blew through the window, causing some of the papers on Rowan's desk to scatter to the floor. Frowning, Rowan took his time to pick up the papers and firmly closed the window shut to prevent anymore scattering papers. Then picking his pen up again, Rowan went back writing about an important report about the evolutions of Pokemon and his theory.

Rowan's small white office was on the small side, but cozy. On the right side of the room, there was a large maple wood bookshelf consisting of books about Pokemon, reports made by other professors in the other regions, and binders filled with data about Pokemon lifestyle, habitats, and others things. A small bed that was the size of a miniature couch was on the opposite side. Even though Professor Rowan has his own house in Sandgem Town, there were times when he had to stay late at the office to finish up his report and was too tired to walk back home. So, to get some sleep, Rowan used the small bed. During the past few months, he had been using the bed more and more often just to finish up his report. Against the wall and in the middle of the room were Rowan's wooden desk and a dark red swiveling chair. This was where everyday after work Rowan would record all the data he wrote down while doing his field research.

Rowan looked through his notes just to be sure and a knock came from the door. He turned around and saw one of his assistants at the door. The sandy hair assistant was a newcomer and was obviously not neatly dressed. His white lab coat had a couple of food stains.

"Professor Rowan, it's almost feeding time. Do you want me to go ahead and feed the starter Pokemon since the new trainers are not here?" Rowan looked at the small Squirtle clock on the wall above him and saw that it was 11 already. John's daughter and her friend are already late on such an important date.

"All right, I'll be there in a minute. Go ahead and feed them. I have a feeling that those two were going to be late. Oh, and change your coat. It's dirty." The lab assistant turned red from embarrassment, but nodded and headed to the back of the room where the large lab holding the three starter Pokemon was. Rowan frowned as he continued his report. If he had known those two were going to be late, he could've gone out and did some field research. This is why he hated tardiness. It made everybody else hang back.

Suddenly, Rowan heard a door slam and thought it was strange that John came back so early from his morning walk.

"Professor Rowan, we have a trainer who needs a starter Pokemon as well." Rowan sighed. So that was the reason. He was almost finished with his report, but it looked like he would have to put it off until after giving the trainer a starter Pokemon.

Rowan got out from his chair, and out of his small office. He arrived at the main hallway, and saw John and a young boy with a red flat cap next to John. The young boy was staring around the room with his head staring at the ground, and at the word 'Professor Rowan,' the boy glanced at a couple of seconds at Rowan with a look of amazement. Professor Rowan felt uneasy at the boy's astonished yet sad look. It was as if the boy knew something... The look quickly passed and the boy bowed politely toward the professor. "Please to meet you."

Rowan gave a nod in approve. "Nice to meet you too."

"His name is Lucas," John said quickly, "I found him on the road, ready to travel. However, he doesn't have a Pokemon, so I thought he could get one of the starters and travel with my daughter and her friend." Rowan thought for a moment and shrugged.

"Sure, that's not a problem. Follow me. I'll lead you to the lab." Professor Rowan walked down the hall, leaving the other two behind to follow in his lead. "By the way John..."

"Yes, Rowan?" John responded immediately.

"Your daughter and her friend are not here yet even though it's already past 11."  
"Really?" John said puzzled. He looked at the clock and saw that it was indeed 11:10.

"Oh, dear. I guess I'll call the house to see if everything is okay. Lucas, just follow Professor Rowan into the lab." John quickly left to the front desk to place a phone call. Lucas hung back a bit, feeling uneasy following this man. After a couple of steps, Professor Rowan realized that the trainer was still standing in the same spot.

"Well?" Professor asked impatiently, "Are you coming or not?"

"Ah, yes, sorry," Lucas responded. He immediately ran to catch up and ended up tripping over his shoes. He landed face down on the floor. "Ouch." Rowan narrowed his eyes at the boy.

"Please be more careful," Rowan said flatly.

"Yes sir," Lucas said and got up immediately. He had a small bump on his forehead, but he didn't seem to notice it much. He quickly followed the professor down the hallway and toward two thick metal doors. Rowan pushed one of them and revealed the high-tech lab. On the side of the wall, there were computers, recording information as the lab assistants typed down stuff from papers. In the middle of the room, there were three Pokemon, waiting impatiently for food to be filled inside their bowl.

The Pokemon on the left side of the table was a thin agile brown monkey. A flame was burning from its back, and Lucas could immediately tell that it was a fire Pokemon. It looked mischievously at the other Pokemon, obviously planning to play a trick on the other two.

"This is Chimchar- a fire Pokemon," Rowan said, pointing at the monkey, "A little bit on the playful side but fast when it comes to speed for a starter." As if to prove it the fire Pokemon jumped up and down nonstop. Lucas shruged and thought that Chimchar was way to hyper for him.

On the right side of the table was a blue penguin Pokemon. It had a proud look on its face, like it was waiting to be fed like a king. This was obviously a water type Pokemon. The penguin gave a haughty look at Lucas' appearance. Deciding that Lucas obviously did not appear important, the penguin raised its beak proudly in the air and scoffed at the little boy. Lucas smiled weakly at the Pokemon. It was obvious that the blue penguin thought that Lucas was not worthy enough to train him.

"That is Piplup- a water Pokemon," Rowan said, frowning a little at Piplup's rude behavior, "Yes, it's very proud, but its attacks are pretty powerful and its speed is not too bad. It's a well balanced Pokemon." Piplup puffed its chest at Rowan's description of it. Lucas thought that Piplup was acting too proud and that was not a good Pokemon to train. Overconfidence is not a good thing.

Lucas turned to the Pokemon in the middle of the Chimchar and Piplup and saw something he couldn't believe. The last Pokemon was a green looking turtle with a small branch with two leaves on it, sticking out of its head. It yawned slowly and opened its eyes sleepily. It turned slowly toward the new trainer, and immediately its eyes miraculously were wide open.

"Turtwig!" Lucas opened his arms out and the grass type Pokemon jumped in. Rowan looked amazed at the bonding between the two. It was obvious that Lucas met Turtwig before.

"You know him Lucas?"

"Yeah! He helped me battle off a couple of Starly," Lucas said, laughing as Turtwig licked his face. Rowan's head suddenly realize that something was wrong here.

"And could you tell me about this battle?"

"Well," Lucas thought for a moment, "yesterday, me and this girl were attacked by those birds and umm... I found a briefcase next to me and there were Pokeballs in it so I used one of them and Turtwig came out... We were a team! We fought off those Starly with ease." Lucas petted the turtle Pokemon as it cuddled into his lap. Rowan realized that the briefcase Lucas was talking about was his and went missing yesterday. He was about to worry nonstop when it miraculously came back at the front of his door. Something fishy was going on here.

"Interesting... could you elaborate more on the incident...?"

...

"Dawn! Do you know what time it is? You know that you were so suppose to be here at 11. Why are you late? And why do you have a Muchlax?"

"Sorry dad. It's 11:15. I know. Damion got us lost again, and long story about Muchlax. We decided to bring him with us." Dawn replied, answering all of her father's questions in order. Dawn and Damion managed to arrive at the building just before John called the house. John would've given Dawn a huge lecture, but right now wasn't the time. He needed to get them to the lab quickly before Professor Rowan become more furious.

"Never mind that. You have to hurry. Rowan is already cranky as it is."

"Thanks a lot Damion," Dawn snapped at the blond hair boy, "If you had let me read the map, we would've been here earlier."

"Sorry, I am the expert in reading maps," Damion said defensively, "Besides the map used to the wrong type of key. I mean, how was I suppose to know that the blue line represent the river and not the road?" Dawn groaned. No wonder Damion did poorly in school.

"Come on guys," John said, impatiently at the quarrel, "What's done is done. We need to get to the lab."

"Yes sir," Damion mumbled. They walked briskly down the hall and Muchlax followed the two trainers in a slow duck like walk. After a moment John decided to tell them the news.

"Oh, by the way, I found a lost beginner trainer on the road today. Is it okay after you guys finish choosing your Pokemon, he could travel with you? I'm feel safer if you guys travel in numbers." Dawn looked at Damion for answers. After all, Damion was the one who usually called the shots.

"Sure, why not?" Damion said, shrugging his shoulders, "But I get the strongest Pokemon."

"Damion," Dawn snapped, "They are all on the same level! There are no strong Pokemon."

"But I get the one that can beat that kid's Pokemon." Dawn groaned again. Damion was hopeless and narrow minded.

"That's great," John said, sighing with relief, "He should be in there, choosing a Pokemon with Rowan."

"WHAT!" Damion exclaimed, "He's getting the first choice?!"  
"Well," John replied evenly, "HE was here earlier than you guys were so..." John didn't finish what he was going to say. Damion was already sprinting down the hall trying to get to the double doors.

"Stop! No running!" John yelled, trying to keep up with Damion. Damion ignore Dawn's father and pushed open the door, only to find out that the trainer was somebody that didn't want to meet him. There was a huge silence followed by a loud scream.

"YOU!" And there was the sound of gagging immediately after that word.

**Author's Notes**

LOL. Somebody is being tortured. Wonder who?

It'll be a while before OCs will appear, so please wait. I need to start the traveling before I get to OCs.

Well, the next chapter will probably be posted in about 500 years. lol. jk. Sorry, this fall is going to be really busy for me so wait patiently and I'll have more chapters posted.

Now to thank the reviewers. (You guys are increasing everyday... O.O)

...

**Blake Wilson**

Heh, this story doesn't really have a lot of reviews compare to others. I saw a story with a thousand reviews in less than 5 chapters. O.O Now that is something to be insanely jealous of. Well, thanks for the review. Hope you managed to contact with **Sparky**. And seriously it was no big deal. The request is not that weird.

**ChoklitKisses**

Thanks for the OC. I'll put her in if I have a place. Right now, I'm taking everybody's OCs, but whether or not I use them at all is another story. Depends on the chapters right now.

Muchlax has returned!! lol. Thanks for the review.

**the shadow of hell**

yay! yay! thanks for the review.

**fatal whisper**

Yeah, the story is taking a while to start moving, but that's because I don't write a lot due to the fact that I'm so busy. sorry. Well, I'm having trouble developing Lucas' personality right now. I'm in a dilemma of how to describe an 'idiot' yet strong trainer. lol. Thanks for the review. Sorry if the plot line is slow right now.

**Lady of DarkFire**

Heh, yeah it would be funny if Dawn released the dogs on him. Oh guess what? (motions you to come closer to the screen so nobody could listen to what we have to say) _Dawn is actually going to use some 'fighting' skills on Damion in the next chapter. You'll see why Damion is scared of her. lol._ thanks for the review.

**xoxbb**

oh okay, thanks for the specific battle. (oh, this is going to be good. MUHAHAHAH!)

**Aiko**

hey there. Thanks for your permission. (now going over to tell **Sparky**) Enjoy the chapter.

**renniegirl**

Thank you for the review! hope to see you next update.

**Brenediction**

Thanks for the review. Violence on the way.

**SportyGurl1997**

hahaha, yup cliff hangers are my specialty. (hold your applauses till the end... wait... cliff hangers makes it so that there is no end... lol.) thanks for the review.

**Putchkins**

thank you for the compliment. I never knew that most stories have the main character from some village, but then again, I don't read a lot of fanfiction since I don't have a lot of time. lol.

**X-Spark**

Yo! Thanks for reviewing. Hope you've finish your first chapter of the side story. And thanks for the improved OC. lol.

**Unknown**

Yup, glad it made you laugh (Finally! Somebody laughed at my jokes.)

I update early only if I got a chapter ready and its a special occasion or after I went through torture. lol. 100 reviews is amazing in such little chapters, so I couldn't help but to post up a new chapter. hey, if we get 500 in less than 30 chapters, I'll update early again. keep your finger crossed

**AmethystPrincess93**

thanks :) Hope you continue to review.

**Anne**

... O.O

uh, okay... though I don't really understand why you were forced you... but oh well, more reviewers yay! Hope you continue to review as well.

...

Okay, finished up thanking.

Keep on reviewing and I'll see you in the next chapter (or in another story, depending if you read those as well...). Remember that I am busy so updates WILL NOT come as fast as they use to. In fact, I haven't slept for more than 5 hours each day...

zzzzzzzz...

-**JapanDreamer**


	11. Dawn's Supreme Power

**Disclaimer: I'm back, and I haven't discover the secrets to own Pokemon.**

well, I'm back and I'm dead. lol. Well, I'm really busy so I'm probably update every two weeks for only one chapter of one of my stories. I'm rotating around so this week its DP.

My power went out in my house, so I ended up in the dark for A WHOLE WEEK WITHOUT ELECTRICITY! No refrigerator, no microwave, no tv, no computer, no internet, no DS after the batteries ran out. I never felt so miserable in my life.

Good news guys! Platinum Version came out (in Japan)! Yay! If anybody has the game could you please tell me. I want to use some of the new characters and places in my story. I'll shower you with questions nonstop, but I'll put your name in the author's notes to show my thanks. Well, that is until I get the English version of the game which is in about 500 years considering my budget... lol.

Enjoy the chapter guys!

**Chapter 9:**

Dawn and her father immediately ran into the room and found Damion squeezing Lucas' throat. Rowan was obviously trying to pry Damion's hand off of Lucas' throat. Lucas' face was already blue, but he didn't even have the strength to pry Damion's hands off.

"Lucas!" Dawn gasped.

"Damion!" John yelled.

"Die!" Damion growled.

"Argh..." Lucas replied.

"Enough!" Rowan said, "Can you please explain to me what is going on here?" Damion ignored Rowan and continued to squeeze the rest of Lucas' life out of him. Turtwig was pulling Damion's green scarf, trying to get Damion away from Lucas. Muchlax had fallen asleep, not realizing what was going on.

Chimchar and Piplup were watching the two adults and the three kids with great interest. Chimchar, admiring Damion's power, was eyeing on Damion with interest. Finally with the help of John and Dawn, Rowan managed to pry Damion's hands from Lucas' throat.

"Gasp... can't breath," Lucas gasped, massaging his throat.

"You better take all the air you can get cause you're going to die," Damion yelled. He tried to run back toward Lucas, but Rowan and John held him back.

"Stop this right now!" Rowan yelled, "Damion, do you know Lucas?"

"Sure right I do," Damion growled, his eyes staring menacingly at Lucas, "This guy ran away, the little freak!"

"Really?" Rowan said, his eyebrows raised.

"Ran away?" John said surprised. He looked at his daughter who gave a weak smile.

_Damion, shut up_! Dawn thought.

"Yeah!" Damion said, running off his mouth, "Me and Dawn were at the-"

"Dad, Professor Rowan," Dawn cut off, "Lucas is a friend we met yesterday at the park, and we decided to meet up with each other today, but Lucas ran off. Damion and Lucas became pretty good friends, so Damion is pretty mad at Lucas."

"Is that part of the reason why you were late?" John asked, surprised. Lucas never mentioned meeting Dawn and Damion during their conversation.

"Yeah," Dawn said smiling, "Isn't that right Damion? Lucas?" Damion and Lucas were about to say something to object, but Dawn gave them both an evil stare. Damion and Lucas decided that arguing is not the best choice and both nodded in agreement.

Piplup's eyes widened with surprise at Dawn's supremacy power over the two boys. This girl was obviously the leader of the group.

"Well if that's the case, I guess everything is okay now," Rowan said, "John lets go right now. I have something I need to discuss with you. All three of you, go ahead and choose your Pokemon." John looked quizzing at Rowan but went out of the lab to leave Dawn and her friends alone.

"Do you believe Dawn?" Rowan asked once they were out of earshot.

"No," John said shaking his head, "I think Dawn is making another white lie." Rowan didn't say anything and John continued his explanation. "I mean, I don't think Dawn did anything bad, but it's obvious that Lucas doesn't really know those two. But my question is why. I guess I'll go integrate Dawn later."  
"Oh don't bother," Rowan said quickly, "I think its best if we leave it at that."

"What?" John said surprised, "Why?" Rowan didn't reply and quickly changed the subject.

"I need the information about yesterday's incident."

"Oh," John said, a little surprise at the sudden change of topic, "Yes, I have it all on my laptop. I'll have it print out in a moment."

"Good," Rowan muttered. He took a quick glance at the lab. _Yes, it was better this way. No need to ruin the start of a trainer's journey_.

...

"Damion..." Dawn growled. Damion gulped.  
"Dawn," Damion explained, "I-" Dawn slammed her fist into Damion's head. The violent force caused Damion to fall to the ground next to Lucas. Lucas widened his eyes with surprise at the sudden violence.

"DO YOU REALIZE THAT YOU COULD'VE RUINED MY POKEMON JOURNEY?! IF YOU HAD BLABBED ANYMORE, MY FATHER WOULD'VE GROUNDED ME FOR FIFTY YEARS!" Dawn yelled. Chimchar, Piplup, and Turtwig both cowered behind Lucas. This lady was scary. "AND YOU!" Lucas gulped as Dawn came toward him.

Dawn grabbed Lucas by the collar and gave him an angry glare.

"I'm sorry," Lucas squeaked, but it didn't seem Dawn heard him.

"WHY DID YOU RUN OFF?! YOU REALIZE THAT WE WERE WORRIED SICK ABOUT YOU?! STOP THINKING ABOUT YOURSELF FOR ONCE!" Lucas widened his eyes. Despite the fact that Dawn was obviously mad and had an aura of murderous intent, Lucas was surprised. They were worried about him. _Both of them_. "NOW I WANT BOTH OF YOU," Dawn grabbed Damion by the collar as well, "TO APOLOGIZE AND NEVER TRY TO DO SOMETHING AS STUPID LIKE THAT AGAIN!"

"Sorry," Lucas muttered.

"Yeah, sorry," Damion muttered as well. Dawn let go of both of them and sighed.

"There much better," Dawn said, back to her normal self, "Now let's hurry up and choose a Pokemon." She skipped toward the three Pokemon. "Let's see. I don't know which Pokemon is best suited for me... hmmm." Lucas was shocked at the sudden change of attitude and looked at Damion for answer.

"When she gets mad," Damion muttered, "she uses her martial arts skill. She has been training since she was five. That's why I don't argue with her a lot. Once she finally cooled down, she's back to her normal self. So I suggest that you stay on her good side." Lucas looked at Dawn and made a mental note to never run away like that again.

"Guys!" Dawn said exasperatedly, "Hurry up! Pick out your Pokemon too."  
"Um," Lucas said, "I already decided to have Turtwig." Lucas pointed to the green turtle that was standing next to him. It was obvious that Turtwig agreed with Lucas.

"Oh," Dawn said, "Well in that case, who shall I pick? Piplup or Chimchar?"

"What type is Turtwig?" Damion asked.

"A grass type, duh," Dawn said, rolling her eyes, "Piplup is a water type and Chimchar is a fire type."

"I GET CHIMCHAR!" Damion yelled. He picked up the little fire monkey Pokemon who smiled happily.

"What? Why?" Dawn said, surprised at Damion's sudden decision.

"Because it can beat grass type," Damion said and looked at Lucas, "I'm not going to lose to you." Lucas gave a blank look at Damion's proud smile. Chimchar giggled happily and climbed onto Damion's shoulder. "Yup, this one likes me. I can tell."

"Great, you understand the basic concept of weakness of each elements," Dawn said, "Then Piplup is mine." She picked up the blue penguin who smiled proudly at Dawn.

"Guess that's that," Damion said happily, "Let's start our Pokemon journey now!"

"Hold on!" Dawn snapped, "We have to wait for Professor Rowan and my father."

"Why?"  
"They need to give us stuff dummy!" Dawn snapped.

"Gotcha," Damion said grinning.

"Seriously, you need to start thinking before you act," Dawn said, shaking her head.

"Well where's the fun in that?" Damion asked grinning at Dawn.  
"It'll make you look like you actually know what you're doing."  
"But I already do know what I'm doing."

"You're impossible Damion!" Lucas smiled at the two. They were obviously good friends despite the arguments they get into. Lucas kinda wished he had friends like those.

...

"I'm glad to see that everything worked out well," Rowan said happily. John smiled. The Pokemon obviously go well with their trainers. They choose well. Dawn, Damion, and Lucas returned their Pokemon back into their respected Pokeballs before facing Rowan again.

"Well in that case, John can do the honor and give you what you need."

"Right," John said. He took out three devices, one red, one pink, and one green, and handed one out to each of the three trainers. "These are Pokedex. They will record data of any new Pokemon you met. Its also has your identification on it, so keep this with you wherever you go."

"Okay," Dawn said, putting her pink Pokedex into her bag.

"Thanks," Damion said grinning. He put his green Pokedex into his pocket.

"Thank you sir," Lucas said politely. He put his red Pokedex into his small backpack.

"Right then, here's another thing I need to give you guys," John added. He took out three sets of five Pokeballs. "You can catch up to five Pokemon before you have to use the PC. Don't forget to take good care of your Pokemon."

"All right!" Damion said excitedly, "10,000 dollars say that I'll capture the first Pokemon."

"10,000 dollars says you can't," Dawn said, smirking.

"You're on!" Damion grabbed his Pokeballs with enthusiasm. He strapped them on to the side of his belt. Dawn grabbed her own Pokeballs and placed them in her backpack. Lucas tired to reach for the Pokeballs but his hands fumbled and a couple of the Pokeballs fell to the ground.

"Ahh! Lucas!" Damion said, shaking his head, "Shesh, you're really clumsly." Dawn giggled, and Lucas blushed red at his clumsy act.  
"Sorry," Lucas apologized and immediately went on his hands and knees to pick up the Pokeballs. One of the Pokeballs rolled off and down the hallway and to the lab.

Back at the lab, Muchlax woke up and found the lab empty. Feeling lonely it went out to the hallway where one of Lucas' Pokeballs started to roll toward it. Feeling curious, Muchlax picked up the Pokeball. It accidentally pressed the button in the middle of the Pokeball and got sucked in. After a several moments, the Pokeball rolled slightly, flashing a red light.

"Uh oh!" Lucas said. He picked up the Pokeball and it immediately dinged, showing that Lucas had captured Muchlax.

"Oh!" Lucas said surprised, "Whoops."

"That's an interesting way to capture your first Pokemon," John said surprised.

"You probably just made a new record," Rowan said, checking the clock.

"Looks like somebody owes me another 10,000 dollars," Dawn said grinning at Damion's horrified expression.

**Author's Notes**

Boy, Damion's luck is not going very well huh?

I think this chapter sucks. I wanted to work on it some more but homework got in the way (Why does everything have to be on the internet?). If I have time, I'll revise it and let you know. I'm going blind after reading my books under the dim candle lights...

Just to let you know, I FINALLY figured out what Pokemon Lucas, Dawn, and Damion get. Can you guess? Lol.

Oh yeah, if you guys can get me 200 reviews in less than 30 chapters... I'll update early again. Just to let you know.

All right, now to thank my reviewers.

...

**the shadow of hell**

thanks for the review! see you in** Rewritten**!

**Lady of DarkFire**

thanks for the review! nice to see you again.

**fatal whispher**

hahaha, don't worry about school. You're going to do great. Me on the other hand... well, I can only pray T.T

thanks for the review.

**Brenediction**

Share me your IMMORTALITY! lol

**xoxbb**

lol. no, at that moment when I wrote this, I felt like laughing and wanted to share it to you. lol. Good luck on your hw.

**X-Spark**

YO! how are you? not much to say, but if you have anymore questions, just let me know okay? I'll respond as soon as I can. thanks for the review.

**ChoklitKisses**

thanks for the review. Muchlax! lol

**Needa Freeda**

wow, I'm loved. thanks. .

**Jarkes**

thanks for the review. About Birdo, I'm going to add that in the next chapter.

**SsX-77**

thanks for the review!

**StarlightAmethyst**

OMG! I'm so sorry! I totally forgot to change to your new pen name. Well, thanks for the review.

**SportyGurl1997**

yes, death is upon Lucas, since he made Damion lose the bet. lol.

**Tragedy Unforgiven**

thanks for the two reviews. see ya next time.

**Aiko**

oh, okay sorry **Anne** if you're reading this. Um **Aiko**, I'm sorry but could you rewrite your OC again? I need another copy. Sorry! thanks for the review.

**renniegirl**

thanks for the review. Stressed but I'm doing fine for now.

**Unknown**

hey there. Glad you like the way I update and my choice in Pokemon. Well, thanks for the review and I'll see you on the next update.

...

OMG, so many reviewers. I get really happy from reading all of your nice comments.

All updates are going to be slower because I haven't been on a computer at all for a week to type my stories.

Thank you all and now the traveling begins... IN THE NEXT CHAPTER!

**-JapanDreamer**


	12. Damion's First Captured Pokemon

**Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon, but I do own this story so don't take it!**

Hello guys! Sorry but I'm so busy this week and next week and the week after... lol.

But I'm really more busy than usual. So chapters may be short or not as descriptive, but please, just bear in mind that I have a life outside of fanfiction. I could've just stop updating and consider the sotry dead, but I made a promise to you guys, so despite the fact I might not have time to write as well as I use to, I'm going to continue to update.

Enjoy guys!

**Chapter 10:**

"Now you owe me 109,234,523 Pokedollars now," Dawn said as she tallied the mark in her Journal.

"What!" Damion yelled, "You ACTUALLY wrote down the amount I owe you?!"

"Of course," Dawn said, rolling her eyes, "you actually think I'll let you off that easy."

"B-but I... that is... I don't," Damion sputtered as he tried to think of a good argument.

"What are you going to do? Stutter at me again?" Dawn said, grinning at Damion's face. Damion fell silent and glared at Lucas who cringed. The three trainers had started to walk down the road to next town which was Jubilife City as their next destination.

After a couple of goodbyes, Dawn, Damion, and Lucas had begun their journey. Dawn promised her father to keep in touch and even showed the Journal as proof of recording her traveling. So far the trip has been really uneventful unless you count Lucas moving around, looking at every single detail of nature as if it were pure gold. Now that Dawn thought about it, Lucas was strange in a way. Besides the numerous of strange questions he asked, Lucas avoided questions that Dawn asked relating to most of his life, and after a response of 'what's for lunch' from Lucas after she asked him where was he from, Dawn decided not to ask anymore questions for now. Damion was still suspicious of Lucas, but after getting hit by Dawn, he thought it was best to leave things as they are for now. Lucas was just simply glad that the two were not going to integrate him again.

"You know I don't have much money," Damion said, grumbling after a couple of minutes, "I meant all of those bets as a joke."

"Really?" Dawn said, her eyebrows widen with feint surprise, "Do you actually believe that bets are a joke?"

"NO!" Damion snapped, "But if it wasn't for LUCAS, I would've won that bet!"  
"Please," Dawn said, rolling her eyes, "you actually believe that it was Lucas' entire fault?"

"Yeah!" Damion growled, "He was never suppose to be in the group, and he just show up. In the end, I should still have a chance and his capture should not count."

"Lucas!" Dawn said, turning around to face him, "Tell this guy yourself that it wasn't your fault! Stop making me defend you!" Dawn's anger faded and was replaced with incredulous at Lucas' bulged mouth which made him look like he had swallowed a Quilfish. In his arms were berries.

"Argh cint," Lucas replied from his over filled mouth. (I can't.)

"Dude, quit talking with your mouth full," Damion yelled, slapping Lucas' back. Lucas chocked from the food and started coughing, spitting out berries everywhere.

"Stop Damion!" Dawn shrieked getting away from the flying food bits, "That's gross!" Lucas coughed a bit and wiped his mouth.

"Sorry," Lucas apologized, "I found these berries and wanted to eat some." Damion slapped his forehead in frustration.

"IDIOT!" Damion yelled, "What if it is poison?!"  
"Berries are poisonous?" Lucas asked shocked. Lucas looked at the berries carefully. "I thought these were Mago berries!" Damion gaped, dumbfounded to continue his speech and Dawn widened her eyes.

"How did you know these were Mago berries?" Dawn asked, curiously.

"Yeah," Damion said, "Most trainers don't know about names and stuff. Not even me."

"Well, Damion doesn't know anything at all anyways."

"HEY! What's that suppose to mean?!"

"You can tell by the shape," Lucas explained, "See, it's a crescent shape. Plus the taste is very sweet." He held up the pink and faded yellow color banana shape berry.

"Exactly!" Dawn said, excitedly, "Although, it's not as sweet as Pecha berries in my opinion."

"Well it depends," Lucas said slowly, "Most Pecha berries are easy to grow, so they tend to be sweeter. If somebody can grow Mago berries really well, then the chances of the berries being sweeter than Pecha are pretty high."

"Really?" Dawn said amazed. Lucas blushed at Dawn's interest.

"Hey," Damion said, grumpy that he was left out of the conversation, "That's nice and all, but where did you learn this stuff?"

"Read it," Lucas said simply, "Although I have to say, tasting it for the first time is better than just reading it." Damion watched Lucas, but Lucas didn't elaborate and continued to eat the Mago berries. Damion sighed. The only thing useful this kid does was providing information on food. It's embarrassing. Then again, Dawn seemed really interested in this boy's information anyways...

"Okay," Damion said, breaking up the conversation again, "I'm going to go catch my first Pokemon!"

"Eh?" Dawn said, "Already?"

"Yeah," Damion said, "I'm going to capture a Pokemon so I can hurry and train it. My goal is to become the greatest Pokemon trainer!"

"Ohhhhh," Lucas said thoughtfully as he chewed on another Mago berry.

"Right," Damion said, excitedly, ignoring Lucas, "See you guys later! Watch me Dawn!" With that, Damion ran off, leaving Dawn and Lucas by themselves.

"Do you think he'll be okay?" Lucas asked Dawn.

"Of course," Dawn said, smiling, "Damion is stupid sometimes, but his dreams allow him to keep moving forward no matter what. That's what makes him strong."

"I mean that he doesn't know how to use a Pokedex and he never trained that Chimchar."  
"Oh," Dawn said, realizing what Lucas' was implying, "Then he's definitely going to die."

...

"How hard is it to find a Pokemon?!" Damion fumed as he walked around the tall grass. No matter which way he turned, there doesn't seem to be a single Pokemon. Something was wrong with this society. Fuming with anger, he kicked a small white rock as hard as he could. The small rock went high into the air like an arc and fell to the ground.

BONK! Damion froze. Since when did rocks go 'bonk' when they hit? Suddenly, a large shadow flew up into the air where the rock fell. Damion gasped. It was a large Starly, and on its head was a large shiny red bump. It didn't take a lot of thinking to realize why the Starly was mad at Damion.

"Arghh!" Damion ran as fast as he could while Starly came after him, pecking his head as many times as possible. "Get away! Get away! I'm sorry!" Starly chirped angrily and continued to peck.

_Guess it's not going to leave me alone_. Damion thought. "Chimchar let's go!" The fire type monkey came out of its Pokeball and was filled with excitement. "All right Chimchar use-" Damion paused. What could Chimchar use? Chimchar paused, looking at his trainer. Starly came down and attack the monkey. The impact caused Chimchar to fall to the ground. At the same time, Starly flew back into the air to prepare another wave of attack. Chimchar screamed with pain and started to run around like Damion did to avoid Starly.

"Chimchar calm down!" Damion yelled. Darn it! What attacks does Chimchar know? He pulled his hair, trying to figure out something. Finally, Chimchar started crying and bawling when suddenly tiny flames shoot out of its mouth. Damion gasped and Chimchar had the same surprised look as well. Damion's shocked face turned to happiness. Finally! "Chimchar! Use whatever you just did on that Starly!" Chimchar turned around and faced the bird. Chimchar took a huge breath and blasted tiny flames at the bird who was ready for another stream of pecks. Starly, shocked at the attack, got severely damaged from the burnt attack, and fell to the ground.

"Yes!" Damion grinned! Now to capture it! He got out the Pokeball and was about to throw it when a voice stopped him. He pressed the button on the ball just like he saw Muchlax did and threw it with all his might at Starly. The Pokeball opened and absorbed Starly into red light which was sucked in. The Pokeball started to roll around while flashing red. Finally, after several tense moments, the Pokeball finally halted and the light stopped flashing. "All right! I caught a Starly! Congratulations Chimchar!" Damion picked up the Pokeball and did a victory sign. Chimchar grinned and returned the victory sign.

...

"EH?! You actually caught a Pokemon?!" Dawn said, shocked. Lucas, obviously not interested in Damion's announcement, was looking with a dazed expression at the scenery instead.

"Yup!" Damion grinned at Dawn's shocked face, "Feast your eyes on Starly!" Starly was out of its Pokeball and on Damion's left shoulder. Chimchar was on Damion's right shoulder, pleased that it helped Damion.

"Wow!" Dawn said impressed, "I didn't know you knew how to use the Pokedex, but you obviously did!"

"Eh?" Damion said confused. Chimchar's eyes were just as confused as Damion's were showing.

"Well, the Pokedex shows the attacks your Pokemon can know," Dawn said, explaining while showing her Pokedex, "That's how you know the wild Pokemon you're facing and the strengths and weakness." Damion gaped. He didn't know that. "You know for a moment there I thought you caught the Pokemon out of sheer luck and stupidity." Dawn laughed at the thought while Damion grinned weakly.

"Well," Damion said, facing toward Lucas, "Now it looks like I caught up! Don't think that you're better than me just because you caught the first Pokemon."

"Huh," Lucas said, turning around, confused, "I'm sorry. Did you say something?". Damion's proud face turned into anger.

"You're not listening again!" Damion yelled while chocking Lucas.

"Ahhh! Sorry! Sorry!"  
"Damion stopped!" Dawn yelled, pulling him away from Lucas. Chimchar and Starly got off of Damion's shoulder and watched Dawn slammed their trainer to the ground. "Calm down!"

"Sorry," Damion mumbled. He got up slowly to his feet.

"Lucas! Are you okay?!" Dawn asked, pulling Lucas up.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Lucas said, quietly, blushing. Damion frowned at this moment. These two were obviously getting along TOO well. He didn't like what he saw. But that's okay, Lucas was obviously challenging him, and Damion never backs down on a challenge.

"Lucas I accept your challenge, we're rivals not only in Pokemon so don't you dare think I would lose." Lucas looked at Damion with confusion, but Damion didn't elaborate and continued down the path. "Come on guys! Let's hurry!" Without another word, Damion and his Pokemon ran down the road.

"Wonder what he meant," Lucas wondered out loud, while he straightened his hat.

"Don't worry," Dawn said, "He always say strange things." Without another word, Dawn ran after Damion. After a moment of pondering as to what Damion meant about rivals, Lucas shook his head and followed the other two.

...

"Lazy bums," Dawn groaned as she got her sleeping bag ready. It was nightfall and the three decided to sleep before arriving to the next town. Damion and Lucas were both snoring in their own sleeping bag. Dawn sighed. Despite the fact that they had to get the campsite ready before falling asleep, Damion and Lucas were already knocked out and in their sleeping bags.

Lazy boys. Dawn ended up doing all of the chores by herself. Thank goodness her father took her out camping when he was doing research. She took her Journal out of her bag and began writing down the events that happened today.

...

_Monday_

_I got my first Pokemon! His name is Piplup and even though he is small, I know I'll train him to become the strongest water Pokemon. Lucas caught the first Pokemon and Damion owes me money since he lost the bet. But Damion caught the next Pokemon. I'm going to try hard and capture my very first Pokemon too. I can't get behind._

_But, now on a different subject, Lucas hasn't been talking much about himself. I'm starting to wonder if something is wrong. He doesn't seem like a bad kid, but he's obviously hiding something. I wonder what... Besides all that, I think Lucas is actually a really-_

...

Dawn jumped at a particularly large grunt came from behind her. She turned around and to her relief, it was just Damion, who snored just a bit too loud. Dawn sighed. It was getting late. She'll finish her journal tomorrow. With that, she put the journal into her bag and joined the other two. They all fell asleep under the starry night.

**Author's Notes**

URGH! This chapter is worse than the one I wrote last time. But can't do anything about it. I'll elaborate more in the next chapter. Promise.

YAY! Damion caught his first Pokemon! Wonder who will get what next when I update? lol, so many 'w'.

**GUYS, I'M GOING TO HAVE THE FIRST OC IN THE NEXT CHAPTER! CROSS YOUR FINGERS (OR SIMPLY REVIEW) THAT I'LL PUT YOUR'S UP!!**

now to thank my reviewers.

...

**xoxbb**

awww, thanks. Good to know that even when I'm writing at four in the morning, I still can come up with a decent chapter. :D

As for electricity, we had to get a generator. And what's worse, when we bought it, the power came back on. LOL. Hope you're doing well in physics. That's a really tough course.

**SsX-77**

Yeah, I saw those two characters. One whose name is weird (What kind of parent would name their child HANDSOME?!) and the other is just plain ugly (shudders) but I might put them in my story to promote Platinum (Which I still don't have... grrr). thanks for the review!

**SynctrainerLucas**

lol. Yeah, I thought it would be funny if Muchlax was capture in the most unusal way as possible. lol.

**NeedaFreeda**

Yeah, Muchlax... (hugs). So cute! lol. thanks for the review.

**Phantom Shadow Mask**

hahaha, yeah, I thought of doing somethig funny like that. (you changed your name!)

About the two characters, I'm thinking about putting it up in this story to promote Platinum with subliminal messaging (buy Platinum for me. lol) thanks for reviewing.

**Lady of DarkFire**

thank you so much for praising me. (feels really happy). I really need those. thanks for the review!

**CC411**

Gasp. You're back! yay! lol. thanks for the review!

**fatal whispher**

WOW! YOU CAN'T GO ON THE INTERNET ON WEEKDAYS?! What about homework (essays, online quiz, etc.)?! Amazing. I can't survive without internet (well, I could, but I would be miserable for the whole week.)

thanks for the review.

**WildCroconaw**

heh, sorry but can't tell you what the Pokemon is yet. (shhhhh) thanks for the review.

**Aiko**

Thanks for sending another OC.

Oh, and a message for **Anne**, "Don't worry about not reviewing. Its okay."

**renniegirl**

thanks for the review. Glad it didn't suck. Phew. lol

**Spark-X**

OMG! Are you okay?! That's got to hurt. Reminds me of the time I had a paper cut in my eye. Sudders. well, hope you get better. And I don't know about Shikumaru and Lucas. Lucas' personality doesn't really match Shikumaru. Well, thanks for the review.

**Jarkes**

heh, thanks for the review. I'll see you in **Rewritten**.

**Steve**

yay! New reviewer! thanks!

**Unknown**

hahahah. Well, I'm not sure when Jeffery will come out. Have to see. Thanks for the review.

**Starlight Amethyst**

Thanks for the review!

...

Whew, I'm done! Thank you so much for reviewing. I'll see you again soon with an OC.

**-JapanDreamer**


	13. Dreams of the Past

**Disclaimer: I Don't Own Pokemon**

Hey everybody! I'm back. If you're wondering why I updated early, well... I'm going to be very busy this Saturday (I'm going to an Area competition that'll take half of my Saturday.) But luckily today in school, our power went off and we had no electricity, so that was a fun experience (Doing homework in the dark is a very fun.) I managed to find time writing this chapter.

Well, like I promise, I have an OC here. And its... **xoxbb**'s- **Lily**! Congrats! If you're mad right now because your OC wasn't pick, please understand that it is probably because you asked for a specific place (ex. half of you guys wanted your OC to appear in a contest.) and I just randomly pick out from the stash of OC. Sorry guys.

Anyways enjoy! I'm building up the plot and making things a bit more interesting.

**Chapter 11:**

"Maove yet ya stoupid Sneorelax!" Lucas winced as the whip slashed across the air and smacked to the ground next to him. The voice came from a six-foot overweight bald man whose black mustache, long and thin, seemed to contrast this bizarre giant's appearance.

The man was a regular kind of bike gang. He wore one of those ripped up blue jean type of vests with many pockets and a black XXXL shirt underneath. On the left side of his pocket was a small ID card with a large 'G' symbol on the very top. On the bottom was a blown up picture that amplified the ugly man's sinister face. His blue jeans, barely holding on, was torn and ratted in many places. His large hiking boots seemed to shake the ground with each step he took. In his large grubby hand was a sleek brand-new black whip. It was already covered in blood.

Lucas hurried past the man, who gave Lucas a death stare. All of the other people, like Lucas, winced at the sight of the whip. They were all covered with long thin red raw cuts that were still dripping with blood. Lucas and the others were carrying large packages of strange rocks that needed to be moved. It was a tedious process and efficiency was required. Most of the people who were working here are those that have no experience with technology. In fact the whole group consisted of young children, like Lucas, old grandparents, and young teenagers. Everybody else was working at the giant headquarter where scientists were working on some sort of secret project.

Lucas and the others were working in a large mine underground. The conditions were horrible. The dank air stank and many people were coughing. Lucas almost dropped the box as a couple of rocks came crashing down from the top. This entire mine was unstable. One false move and they could all be caved in, or worse- killed. Most of the people were moving slowly and carefully, in hopes of staying alive. However, the boss in charge of them didn't like the idea of slow.

"Yawl Ear MI?! Maove ya stupid pepple!" The man said with his horrible accent, "Don't cha make mi use Seviper again!" A large hiss came from the shadow next to the man. Red eyes were gleaming and a forked tongue could be seen. Everybody's faces were plastered with nothing but true fear this time. They hurried past the man, hoping to get away from those ruby death eyes.

Lucas tried to move fast as well, but the sudden jostle of people caused him to lose his balance and trip over a rock. He fell to the ground, and the boxes he was carrying crashed to the ground, the contents spilling everywhere. A couple of people tripped over the rocks and they too fell to the ground with their boxes spilling contents as well.

"YOU IDTHEIT!" The man roared. Everybody froze fearfully as the fat biker came crashing toward Lucas. "Weth arth ya dothei?!" Lucas got up in a four-legged position and didn't say anything. His whole body was shaking from what's coming up next.

SWIP! The long whip slashed across Lucas' back, causing him to fall to the ground again. A couple of people shriek with terror. The man didn't stop; his arms move up and down, sending the whip down on Lucas until the man's arm couldn't lift another finger.

Lucas was dazed from pain. His vision was turning black and he was starting to fall unconscious.

"What's going on?" A voice asked from behind. Lucas heard a couple of gasps and the sound of boots coming toward him.

"Kaptin!" the man said with a tone of oily politeness.

_Kaptin?_ Lucas wondered before he realized that the man was trying to say 'captain,' and the word 'captain' was the rank for the upper three of the organization. It must be one of them.

"What's going on Rutherboard?" The woman's voice asked again.

"Seupit kid reuin the lein," Rutherboard said. He pointed to the fallen boxes and rocks scattered across the floor. Lucas looked up dazed. He lost so much blood that his vision prevented him from seeing the captain's face. All he could see was the shadow of the woman towering over him.

"Hmm, stupid kid," the woman said, "Very well. Get everybody to clean up this mess. I'll handle this boy."

"Yesh meam!" Rutherboard saluted and ordered the others to get back to work. The woman pulled Lucas so she could see his bruised up face. Lucas groaned weakly through his half-opened eyes.

"You look familiar," the lady said, inspecting Lucas. Lucas could clearly see the lady's red hair which was the color of the blood like the one dripping down his face. "Ah yes, you're that kid whose father we had to deal with." Lucas' whole body received a huge shock from those words. _What did she just say?_  
"Oh, surprise," the lady smiled and licked her lips, "Well, I can see why. You were put into an orphanage at such a young age, I'm not surprise you don't even know your father."

"Where... where is he?" Lucas demanded. His voice was so hoarse and weak that the woman laughed at his question.

"Gone," the lady grinned, "Though I must say, you do look exactly like him, only younger." Lucas winced at the loud woman's voice. She put his face close to her. "Your father was such an annoying guy. Seeing his face again through you ticks me off." She brought Lucas' face even closer. "Wait till you see what I have in store for you."

...

Lucas woke up. Sweat beaded from his forehead. His entire body was shaking and he felt like throwing up. He put his hand to his forehead. Not that dream again. He looked over to his left and saw Damion in his orange sleeping bag. Damion was snoring so loudly, obviously not having any nightmares that were disturbing him. His blond hair was stuck out in different directions, obviously from tossing and turning in bed.

Lucas turned to his right and saw Dawn asleep as well. Her long black hair fell across her face. Her cloth hat was next to her pink sleeping bag. She sighed softly in her sleep, obviously tired from her adventure. Lucas looked up and saw the sun rising from the horizon. The sunlight escaped through the forest branches, revealing patches of light on the ground. Lucas got up and quickly put on his hat. He put his sleeping bag in his backpack. The whole time, he couldn't help thinking about the dream he just had.

It was just a dream. It was just a dream...

...

Dawn yawned and stretched her arms into the air. She sniffed the morning air and realized that Lucas' sleeping bag was gone. She looked around and saw him sitting underneath a tree, completely lost in thought. The sun was already high in the sky and a couple of Starly were chirping while flying.

"You're up early." Lucas looked around surprised and saw Dawn getting out of her sleeping bag and walking toward him.

"Err, bad dream," Lucas said quickly, "Besides, its not really morning."  
"No, I guess not," Dawn agreed. She sat next to Lucas, who once again, seemed to be deep in thought. They fell silent for a moment, not really sure what to say.

"So," Lucas said abruptly as if he realized something, "What are you planning to do?"

"What do you mean?" Dawn asked.

"Well, we're all traveling for a reason. Damion is becoming the greatest trainer, but I haven't heard what you're planning to do," Lucas explained. Dawn gave a wry smile and took a small case out of her pocket. She opened it up for Lucas to see a small orange ribbon that was attached to a gold diamond shape metal.

"What's that?" Lucas asked.

"What's this?!" Dawn exclaimed, "This is a Contest ribbon silly."  
"Cool," Lucas said, making a mental note to ask somebody what that is, "Is that yours?"

"No," Dawn said, sighing, "It's my mom's. She gave it to me as a good luck charm when I told her I wanted to be a legendary coordinator like her." Dawn looked sadly at the ribbon before placing the ribbon back into her bag.

"That's great isn't it," Lucas said, eagerly, "I'm pretty sure, you'll do pretty well."

"Thanks for the encouragement, but it takes a lot of work to be in the top," Dawn explained, "But what about you?"

"Me?" Lucas said, surprised.

"Yeah, I have no idea what you want to do either."  
"Oh, a trainer as well." Lucas immediately fell silent, leaving Dawn in confusion.

"You're aiming for the top?"  
"Oh no," Lucas said, shaking his head, "I don't think I can." Dawn was now really confused.

"Then why-"

"HI! GOOD MORNING!" Dawn and Lucas jumped up in surprise and saw Damion, with an evil looking grin, standing behind them. "GLAD TO SEE YOU GUYS ARE DOING FINE! COME ON LUCAS!" Without hesitation, Damion grabbed Lucas by his red scarf and dragged him away from Dawn. Lucas was gagging while trying to unravel his scarf from his neck.

Dawn pouted and groaned with anger. Damion always came at the wrong time.

...

"Now where are we going?" Damion asked. After a quick breakfast, provided by Dawn, the three trainers walked down the road in hopes of getting to the nearest town. Lucas was walking a little bit behind due to the fact that he was having trouble breathing after being choked again.  
"Jubilife City," Dawn said, looking at the Town Map, "From there we can get to Oreburgh City for the first gym leader."  
"Sweet!" Damion said, excited, "What are we waiting for? Let's go!"

"Hold on!" Dawn yelled, but Damion was already 20 feet ahead. "SLOW DOWN! You'll crash into someone."

"No I won't!" Damion yelled back running backwards now with apparent ease, "Besides, there's nobody on the r-"

CRASH! Damion knocked into someone and they both fell to the ground. Backpacks, Pokeballs, and many other things that we'll not go into came flying everywhere and crashing down with an unpleasant sound.

"Ouch! Watch where you're going you idiot!" Damion turned around and saw a slightly tanned girl about fourteen. She had long black hair that went down to her shoulder and brown chocolate eyes. She wore short blue faded jeans and a purple tank top. Her clothes were obviously expensive sports wear by the looks of it though Damion doesn't really know brands. Her glossy lips were in a upside down smile and didn't look happy.

"Damion!" Dawn yelled as she came toward the scene. "I'm so sorry," Dawn said to the girl, "Damion always act like that."  
"Your name is Damion huh." It was not a question. The girl looked at the blond hair kid with total disdain as she got up and picked up her stuff, "Obvious, you have no control over yourself. Pathetic."  
"Hey!" Damion yelled, obviously mad, "Take that back!"  
"Damion, stop." Dawn ordered, "It was your fault anyways. I'm sorry. My name is Dawn and that over there is Lucas. We're all traveling together."  
"Nice to meet you," the girl said politely to Dawn, "I'm Lilith, but everybody calls me Lily."

"Hi Lily," Lucas said politely while bowing. Lily looked surprised at this polite gesture but quickly looked back at Damion. Damion stared at Lily with rage, obviously feeling insulted after that comment Lily made about him.

"Hey, apologize blondie. You knock into me." Damion's anger began to rise. _Blondie?!_

"Not until YOU apologize to me."

"You apologize."

"No you."  
"Damion! Just apologize!"

"Not until she does."  
"Well, I'm not until you do."

"Then we'll settle it with a battle!" Lily looked surprise at Damion's decision. Dawn bulged her eyes wide open and Lucas cocked his head in confusion.

"What?"

"Simple Flower Girl," Damion said grinning. Lily's face turned bright red with anger. _Fl-flower girl?!_ "We battle two on two and the person who loses will have to apologize first."

"Damion," Dawn said, rolling her eyes, "that's stupid. You haven't even practice battling, besides, Lily wouldn't-"

"I accept!"

"Huh?" Dawn and Lucas said at the same time.

"Let's start right here right now!" Lily grabbed a small ribbon and tied up her hair. Then she took out two Pokeballs from her blue backpack.

"You're on!" Damion grinned and took out his Pokeball from his brown bag.

"Go Pokeball!" They yelled and two bright lights came out from their Pokeballs.

**Author's Notes**

Well we came from nightmare to an exciting battle stage. Oh the irony. If you can't understand Rutherford, I'm apologize.

**EVERYBODY WITH AN OC, LISTEN UP**! Most of your Pokemon are high level, but the three trainers don't have (literally) any strong Pokemons at the moment. So I'm asking you for a compromise. I'll have your OC have some of your Pokemon or lower level and in exchange I'll post up your OC again with your fully desired set of Pokemon later when Dawn, Damion, and Lucas get stronger. PLEASE AGREE TO THIS COMPROMISE!

**AND **Spark needs a specific profile of your OC. Send a PM to him (NOT ME!) of your OC.

I didn't write the battle because I wanted to make sure you guys (cough... **xoxbb**...) are okay with this.

now on to thanking!!

...

**Phantom shadow mask**

lol. sorry Lucas hasn't capture one yet. It'll be a while, since I planned out specifically which Pokemon each person will get and where they can be found in the game. thanks for the review.

**Blake Wilson**

Just because you forgot to review once doesn't mean that you're horrible. Its no big deal. Yeah, descriptions are hard. I could go on and on, but by then, I would have made an entire book out of this fanfiction. lol. thanks for the review.

**xoxbb**

Well, your OC is the first to appear in this story. Let's get the cake and celebrate. hahaha

I was wondering if I could "alter" you set of Pokemon for this battle. Damion only has two Pokemon and it would look kinda pathetic and sad if he was agianst a Glaceon and a Raichu... I'm thinking about an Evee and a Pikachu but its up to you. Let me know soon!

**Lady of DarkFire**

hehehe, I can't have every single Pokemon hate Damion (though that would be funny...) Don't worry, Damion's going to have LOTS of fun with other Pokemon later on. Thanks for the review.

freaking out after seeing that large sword next to you...

**WolfSummoner93**

Typical for Lucas to have bad luck. ha! thanks for the review.

**Ketchum Kid**

hey there. Thanks for the review and OC. However, you didn't meet the requirements I asked for, and I have no idea what he looks like, and I'm freaked out of the fact that every bad guy in the Pokemon games is related to him (lol).

Please redo it and I'll accept your OC when you do it correctly. thanks!

**Jarkes**

dark secret? What dark secret? (jk) do you mean, for the readers or Dawn and Damion?

**fatal whispher**

Oh, that explains. Well, now I'm relieved. thanks for the review!

**Aiko**

Oh, I ask for a revised OC profile because I have trouble keeping track of every added detail you ask for. (My email is pretty full at the moment with junk...) I wanted you to put it all into one PM so I can find all the needed information quick and easy.

And sorry, but you wanted your OC to appear in a Pokemon Center... and unfortunately, there are no Pokemon center in this chatper. SORRY!

**renniegirl**

awww, thanks.

**SsX-77**

heh, yeah a small love triangle is forming and its going to be lots of fun! thanks for the review.

**X-Spark**

hey, what do you want the people to say about their OC? I just gave a notification but I don't know what you want specifically. Tell me soon.

**CC411**

yeah, the love of violence. Can't live without it. lol.

**Brenediction**

How's the game World Craft or whatever its called? Good luck in making sure your brother-in-law doesn't steal it. lol. thanks so much for the review.

**Unknown**

Oh. I didn't know Canadians say "eh". (I learned something new!) I read a couple of manga books and everytime a person is suprise, they will always say "eh" so I assume that's the closest translation for Japanese. Also, it is fun to say "eh".

Yeah, grammar sucks, but that's me.

And I couldn't put **Blake Wilson's** OC in because he wanted his to appear in a contest. Sorry!

...

thanks all for reviewing. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a biology test to study. (wahhhhh!)

**-JapanDreamer**


	14. Blondie vs Flower Girl

**Disclaimer: Even after a week, I have not own Pokemon.**

Hey guys! Guess why I'm updating so early again? I did so well in Area competition! My group made it to the finals, but we lost there (sobs.) But that's okay! We just made school history (No one else ever made it to the finals in our school!)

Anyways, I decided that whenever something good happens (to me), I'll be selfish and update the story that gets the most votes on my profile (**DP **is number one so yeah...)

I have a new OC. I know I'm going fast with OCs but I'm trying to go through the story line. And it is... **X-Spark's** Fuuta! yay! I'll try to get another OC in the next chatper, but it depends.

Enjoy the chapter!

**Chapter 12**:

The battle has started and things were still neck to neck. Damion had sent out his Starly while Lily had her Pichu. Despite their desire to get to the next town, Dawn and Lucas had no choice but to sit out at the sideline. Dawn had her Piplup out and both of them were watching the battle with intense interest, hoping to get some tips on battling. Lucas was having some snacks with Turtwig and Muchlax; all three of them were completely oblivious to their surrounding except of the food in front of them.

"Starly use Wing Attack!" Starly came straight toward Pichu.

"Don't move Pichu!" Lily ordered. Pichu stood in its spot and took the aerial attack.

"Yes! Direct hit!" Damion said, excited, but then he realized that Starly was wincing and seemed to have a harder time staying in the air. He suddenly saw static all around Starly's wings. "What?! Starly!"

"Pichu's special ability is Static," Lily said, smirking at Damion's confused and shocked face, "Basically any attacks that require physical contact on Pichu will result in paralysis. Pichu use Thundershock!" Pichu concentrated really hard and from its little red circular cheeks, send a stream of electricity toward the unmovable Starly.

"Ah! Starly dogged!" But it was too late. Starly took the attack and fell to the ground immediately.

"Sheesh," Lily said in an unsatisfied voice, "So much for that battle."  
"It's over already?" Dawn said surprised.

"Huh?" Lucas said, looking over, "what is?"  
"Hey! That was just a lucky shot. Besides I haven't trained Starly yet, and YOU!" Damion grabbed Lucas by the throat- again. "PAY ATTENTION!"

"Stop!" Dawn yelled, trying to pry off Damion's hands from Lucas' throat which was producing gagging sounds.

Lily stared amazed at the three people. _There are indeed strange people in the world._ She snapped back to reality and realized that the battle was not over.

"YO! Blondie! Get back here so I can finish you off."

"What?! Stop calling me blondie, flower girl! Go Chimchar!" The monkey Pokemon came out of its Pokeball.

"Pichu return!" Lily sent the small mouse Pokemon back into its ball and took out another one, "Go Evee!" A small fox Pokemon jumped out of its Pokeball and without further ado, started to chase its tail.

"Wow, such a cute Pokemon!" Dawn said amazed. She took out her Pokedex to record Evee's data.

"Chimchar, let's go! Start off with Ember" The small monkey took a huge breath and exhaled a blast of fire toward the targeted Pokemon.

"Evee, Quick Attack!" The little brown fox wagged its ears and playfully dogged the attack like it was playing tag.

"ARGH! EMBER! EMBER! EMBER!" Chimchar kept blasting out the fire attack but Evee kept dogging it as if it was playing.

"Now, I'm completely bored," Lily declared, sighing at the pointless battle.

"Chimchar!" Damion said, obviously ticked off, "Get close to Evee and use Fury Swipes!" Chimchar, thanks to its speed, raced toward Evee and started scratching Evee three times.

"Evee!" Lily screamed. Evee whimpered, and winced at its bruised face. "Evee finish it off with a Bite!"

"Chimchar! Scratch!" Evee and Chimchar charged toward each other and immediately crashed head on. The force was so strong that the attack knocked them both down. Both of the Pokemon had fainted, obviously unable to continue battling.

"Shoot!" Damion groaned, "A tie!" He quickly returned Chimchar, and Lily did the same. Lily sighed in frustration. She was so sure that she would've defeated that guy.  
"Not really," a voice said. Damion, Dawn, and Lily turned around and were surprised to hear Lucas speak up. "You see, Lily still has her Pichu, so the battle basically goes to Lily."

"Yeah, that's right," Dawn said, realizing what Lucas was saying, "Okay Damion, you lost, so you have to apologize to Lily first." Damion gave Lucas a death stare that made Lucas cringe in fear. Damion, with an annoyed and stubborn look, faced Lily.

"Sorry for bumping into you," Damion said, frowning. He was determined not to look at Lily when he apologized. Clearly it was an embarrassment for Damion to lose to a girl.

"I accept your apology," Lily said, shrugging her shoulder, "And sorry for calling you a blondie and pathetic."

"Yeah, well," Damion mumbled, "you're a pretty strong trainer. You got talent to become a rival. Maybe we can battle again some time." For some reason, Lily turned bright red at Damion's compliment and, like him but for a different reason, avoided Damion's eyes.

"Thanks," Lily said, in a shy voice that she found that she never used before.

"You okay?" Damion asked, confused at the sudden change of personality, "Your face is all red." Dawn giggled at Lily's expression which caused Lily to jerk back to reality.

"I'm totally fine!" Lily exclaimed, talking very fast, trying very hard and failing miserably to act normal, "Why wouldn't I? I'm always fine. I'm super duper fine! Okay I got to go! I need to heal my Pokemon! Bye!" Without hesitation, Lily ran off to Sandgem Town, where Lucas, Dawn, and Damion came from.

"Something is wrong with her," Damion said, watching the girl leave until the road bend and she wasn't there anymore.

"Oh, there's nothing wrong with her," Dawn said, smiling, "Just a small affection."  
"Infection?" Lucas said, looking concern immediately, "She's sick?"  
"Sick?!" Damion said shocked, "How did she get sick all of a sudden?"

Dawn and her Piplup groaned as the two boys have an animated discussion. Maybe it was best to just keep her mouth shut instead since boys are obviously clueless.

...

"I didn't catch a single Pokemon," Dawn sighed. They arrived at the Jubilife City. So far, Dawn had not found a single Pokemon that she wanted to catch.

"I wonder what's there to eat," Damion wondered out loud, ignoring Dawn's statement, "I'm starving."

"Oh," Lucas said, sounding excited for the first time, "I can't wait to eat. What kind of foods do they have here?"

"Uh," Damion said a little uneasy at Lucas' joyful face, "usually I go with the fast food. They're everywhere so-"  
"You guys just had breakfast!" Dawn roared. She was completely frustrated that Lucas and Damion were both ignoring her. Lucas immediately cowered behind Damion while Damion received the full blast of anger from Dawn's aura.

"Okay, okay," Damion said, backing away, "you don't have to be so angry." Dawn sighed in frustration again and left in a huff. "Dawn wait!" Lucas watched as Damion tried to catch up with the frustrated Dawn.

_Such an amazing place_, Lucas thought as he looked at the city clearly for the first time. There were many new buildings that seemed to tower over the facility back home. The varieties of color seemed to blind him. He couldn't even recognize which building is what. People were walking to and for at a leisurely pace, gossiping with their friends and smiling a lot. _Definitely a better place_. Lucas closed his eyes and sighed in relaxation. He could feel the sense of calmness that he had never felt before. Lucas decided that traveling around the place a bit should be a good place to start. And, as usual, he forgot about Damion and Dawn.

...

"Excuse me but have you seen a young guy with a red cap with bizarre looking clothing?" Dawn asked the man in front

"Nope sorry." The man shook his head and left.

"Drats," Dawn groaned, "where in the world is Lucas?" After Dawn calmed down a bit, she and Damion realized that Lucas was not with them. After a couple of screaming and frustration, Dawn and Damion started walking around, asking random people if they have seen Lucas.

"When I get my hands on him," Damion growled, not finishing his sentence. He pretended to wring an invisible neck as if to vent out of his anger.

"Calm down," Dawn said, "Let's think back. First off, where would Lucas be?"

"Well, if I was Lucas," Damion thought, "I would most likely go to..."

...

A few hours later...

"I've never eaten so many delicious stuff," Lucas said happily. He came out of the department store where they were giving out free food sample. It was like pure heaven going to each floor and eating while looking at amazement at the different stores inside. There were varieties of clothes, Pokemon items, toys, food, and other stuff. Of course most of the people inside were really nice and polite. Lucas felt like he found his place in this world.

"Okay, where to next..." Lucas mumbled as he flipped through the guide book that a nice lady from the travel department gave to him. "Oh, this is interesting!" Lucas said, excited, "The Pokemon Center! There should be a lot of injured Pokemon I can help with!" Without further ado, Lucas followed the directions to the Pokemon Center, having his eyes completely on the map. Then without warning, he collided into something.

"Ouch!" Lucas grumbled as he look up and saw that he had hit the sign that said, 'Pokmon Center.' A giggle came from the back and Lucas saw two girls, obviously laughing at Lucas' stupidity.

Both of the girls obviously just came from the Pokemon school on the other side of the road since they both were carrying school books in their hands. Both of them were wearing a white collared up shirt with a loose black tie and light blue plaited skirts with knee length black stockings and brown leather shoes. Lucas turned bright red from embarrassment as he watched the two girls continue to laugh as they walked down the road. One of the girls, a shoulder length layered red hair girl, looked back at Lucas and winked, making his face turn even redder. Trying to shake off the huge embarrassment, he walked into the Pokemon Center.

"Whoa." Lucas was amazed at the Pokemon Center. The whole place was furnished lavishly. Most of people around the place were hanging around with their Pokemon. Lucas couldn't help but to walk around amazed. He was in such awed that he didn't notice a kid coming up from behind.

"Hey there! It's been a while!" Lucas felt a hand on his shoulder and nearly jumped out of his skin. He turned around and saw a guy about his age.

The light brown hair guy was wearing a white shirt and sky blue jeans. Over his shirt was a long black coat that went down to his knees and his black and orange shoes were sticking out. His hands were wearing black gloves, and his brown eyes seemed to shining with happiness. On his shoulder was a Pachurisu.

"I'm sorry?" Lucas sputtered, confused. The guy looked confused at Lucas' face but immediately grinned.

"Silly, trying to keep it a surprise still? You should've told me that you were moving back here. Hey! What's with those weird clothes?" the guy laughed and slapped Lucas' back.

_Ouch_, Lucas thought as he rubbed his back, _he reminds me of somebody_.

"I'm sorry, but I think you've mistaken me for somebody," Lucas said, trying to get away.

"Huh?" the guy said confused, "You're joking right?" But the blank look on Lucas' face changed the guys mind. "Oh geez, I'm so sorry. Guess I got carried away. But, still, you look so much like Daniel Diamond. Are you sure you're not related to him or something like that?" Lucas froze at the name.

"What did you say?" Lucas asked.

"Uh," the guy said, confused, "I just said that look a lot like Daniel Diamond."

Lucas slid to the ground in confusion.

"Hey!" the guy said surprised, "Are you okay? Was it something I said?!"

_Daniel Diamond... _Lucas thought _could he be..._

**Author's Notes**

MUHAHAHAHA! Now things are getting interesting! I'm so diabolically evil (grins).

If you don't understand the last few sentences, let's just say Lucas' last name is also Diamond (HINT HINT!)

okay, now that Area competition is over, updates will probably be back to normal. (meaning I'll update on weekends instead on random days of the week.)

Now to thank my reviewers.

...

**xoxbb**

hehehehe, glad you like the chapter. I hope you like the battle. I wanted to use some Pokemon that I really like for the battle, and hey, Lily won! thanks for the review.

**X-Spark**

oh, okay so you added more stuff to your OC. (Grrr) lol. hope I wrote down your OC correctly.

**Phantom shadow mask**

its sort of a foreshadow, but since it already happen... more like a hanting past... lol. thanks for the review.

**CC411**

YES! Thank you for agreeing. I don't think Lucas and Dawn will kiss (unless that's what 11 year olds do these days... shudders...) thanks for the review

**fatal whispher**

thanks for the reivew and about your OC!

**Jarkes**

Rutherford is the man with the whip and the horrible accent in the beginning of the last chapter. About the secrete revealing, it'll be a while, since I have NO idea how to present the issue...

All right another OC! Don't worry, you'll probably figure it out sooner or later. I can wait.

**ap13095**

hey thanks for your OC. I still take OCs but whether or not I have a chance to use them will depend on my story's progression. I'm sorry! thanks for the review and I'm glad you remember to put in the disclaimer. (hahaha).

**renniegirl**

thanks so much for the review.

**SsX-77**

hahaha, yeah, Damion is an idiot. and thanks for agreeing to the compromise.

**Aiko**

oh, that's right... you can only PM others when you have an account... Okay, just put down in a review in one of **Spark**'s stories I guess or you could just review to me and I'll send it to him in a PM form. Thanks.

**Ketchum Kid**

All right! You did it right! thanks for the OC and review! Please continue to review, so that if I have questions, I know that I can still contact you.

**Blake Wilson**

heheh, glad the chapter is more interesting. As for area, i'm competing in marching band. Its pretty tiring, but I love how insane we are when we scream.

As for profile, I guess anything about your OC specifically. Anything mysterious about your OC. Ask for **X-Spark** for more details. I just give out the message. thanks for the review.

**dark5523**

whoa, that's a really long review. Thanks for your OC. Glad to see you're specific.

**Unknown**

the dream creeped you out? It was that scary? (In my head: ALL RIGHT!) That dream is the beginning of a specific event later on in the story. (smiles to myself)

I never played Mystery Dungeon before. Is that a good game? And what's the ending like?

Well, the english translations always have "eh" used when somebody is confused. I like the word a lot since its easy to say and makes others annoyed (eh?) lol. thanks for the review.

**Lady of the DarkFire**

Past... or future? Future... or past? Lol. Yeah, time traveling can be so confusing. thanks for the review!

...

well, with so many people to thank, I'm already tired. (phew...) Thank you all and I'll see you next time!

**-JapanDreamer**


	15. Who are You?

**Disclaimer: Owning Pokemon is bad for my health.**

Hey guys, new update! Yay! Kinda short but its interesting. I'm busy for the next couple of days so I'm updating right now.

I introduced a new character, although she really isn't mentioned completely, and its **Aiko**'s Rema!

Enjoy the chapter.

**Chapter 13:**

"Achoo!" Damion sneezed.

"Are you okay? Did you catch a cold?" Dawn asked.

"No, its nothing," Damion replied sniffling, "So do you think this is the place where Lucas is?"

"He's got to be here," Dawn declared, looking at the Pokemon Center. After considerate thinking and running around thanks to Damion, Dawn remembered something and figured out that Lucas should be at the center.

"Are you sure?" Damion asked.

"Positive," Dawn said firmly, "He told me before that he though Pokemon Centers were banned. I wouldn't be too surprise if he actually came to check it out."

"Smart thinking," Damion said, surprised at the reasonable logic, "You know, Dawn, you're actually really smart."

"And it took you two years to figure that out," Dawn remarked sarcastically. Dawn walked toward the center while Damion tried to figure out whether Dawn was serious or not. She was about to open the door when a slightly tanned girl came hurling toward her.

Crash! Dawn and the girl both fell to the ground.

"Ouch! Sorry!" The dark brown hair, tied in a pony tail, girl exclaimed. She was wearing long blue tank top with a white Pokeball symbol and leather navy blue jeans. Around the girl's waist was a black pouch and wore blue, black, and white tennis shoes. Her brown eyes were wide with shock and apology. Dawn was about to say something until she saw something on the girl that made her gape. The girl quickly got up and hurried away.

"Hey! Come back here!" Damion yelled, but the girl was already out of sight. "Dang it! What's with these people these days?" Damion said grumbling and noticed that Dawn wasn't listening to him. "What's wrong?"

"That girl's hand..."

"Huh?"  
"Never mind," Dawn said, shaking her head, "Let's go and find Lucas."

...

"He's not here!" Dawn exclaimed. They checked the entire Pokemon Center, but Lucas couldn't be found.

"Great," Damion groaned, rolling his eyes, "We checked every café and restaurant in the city. Where else could he be?"

....

"Let me get this straight... you're Daniel's mother's great aunt's half brother's son's nephew's cousin twice removed and due to family conflict you guys have never seen each other before except in pictures," the guy said slowly while staring suspiciously at Lucas. Lucas and Fuuta, the guy's name, were both at the café just next to the Pokemon school. Fuuta dragged Lucas to the café and demanded to know everything and not wanting to tell the truth... Lucas had to "improvise" his story. Pachurisu, Trutwig, and Muchlax were sitting on the sidewalk, eating sandwiches provided by the waitress.

"Yup!" Lucas grinned uneasily, "I'm so glad to meet somebody who knows Daniel." _Wonder if he'll fall for that..._ Lucas thought as Fuuta tried to process all the information.

"Wow!" the guy exclaimed excitedly, "Daniel never told me about you! You guys look like identical twins!" Lucas laughed nervously but felt completely relived that Fuuta didn't question him. "So, what brings you here? You wanted to meet Daniel?"  
"Yes! I mean, no, I mean...." Lucas fell silent, his heart pounding. Meeting this Daniel was way too risky but yet, maybe...

"Well, sorry to say this," Fuuta said, sighing, "But he moved to Johto area a couple of weeks ago. He told me he was going to come back to see me soon, so that's why I assumed you were him." Fuuta stirred his drink with his straw and looked disappointed. Lucas just kept his head down, unsure of what he is feeling. Part of him was relived, yet another part kinda wished...

"You okay?" Lucas snapped back to reality and saw Fuuta staring at him concerned.

"Yeah," Lucas said quickly, "I was just wondering what kind of guy Daniel was." Fuuta looked at Lucas with curiosity and smiled.

"He's a really cool guy. He loves Pokemon and I never seen him angry in his life. He takes everything thrown at him as if it was a big joke. Although," Fuuta frowned a bit, "he is a bit of ditzy and he never seems to think carefully."

Lucas listened, feeling a sense of joy he had never felt before. The chances were greater than before. Pachurisu jumped up and sat on Fuuta's shoulder. It immediately fell asleep.

"Geez, this guy always fall asleep," Fuuta sighed, but stroked the little squirrel's head. He paused for a moment and his eyes got wide all of a sudden, but before Lucas could figure out what was going on, Fuuta's face was back to its cheerful self. "Say want to go for a walk? I can tell you more about Daniel if you want."

"That's great," Lucas said, grinning.

"You wait outside," Fuuta said, waving to the door, "I need to pay the bill."

"Okay," Lucas smiled, "Come on Turtwig and Muchlax!" Lucas hurried out of the door with the two Pokemon following him. Fuuta immediately frowned once Lucas was out of earshot.

"His smile is exactly the same too," Fuuta muttered at the Pachurisu, who lazily opened one eye.

_He's like him every single way..._ Pachurisu yawned before continuing its telepathic conversation with Fuuta _If it weren't for the eyes, I would've thought they were the same people. Besides, Daniel doesn't have a great aunt._

"So that kid is hiding something..." Fuuta mumbled.

**Author's Notes**

Heh, its not easy to hide the past... or is it future in Lucas' case? lol.

Oh, one problem guys. I kinda can't find all of the OCs I stored for this chapter. Apparently I lost them... (sorry!) I'm going to find all of the ones I can and post them up on the next chapter. If yours is not on the list then tell me and I'll try to find it again. Just a heads up.

Okay, I'm deciding to do something new for a change.

**FOR ALL THOSE WITH OCS IN CONTEST!!!! I'm going to do a contest soon.**

I'm not sure how I'm going to do the contest, but for sure I'll have appeal part. Please let me know which Pokemon you want forappeal, and what kind of appeal it should look like. It'll save me time and imagination. (lol) Just write down the Pokemon, attacks in specific order and how they are arranged (ex. using Swift into the air and sending Thunderbolts that cause them to bounce off one of another in static form... I don't know) **DON'T SEND IT TO ME NOW!** I'm just giving you a heads up so you'll have a couple of weeks to figure it out.

I'll give you MORE info later, but for right now,** try** to figure out your appeal and **when** I determine how the contest should be, I'll give you a heads up. You'll review then.

Well, now to thank all my reviewers.

...

**xoxbb**

lol. thanks, I didn't really know how to show Lily's 'infection' so I though of some simple comedy. thanks for the review.

**dark5523**

Okay, I apologize but I'm going to have to ask you to rewrite your OC again. It makes things easier when I have all of the info in one condense form. thanks for the review.

**XBrownie**

It just a comedy when Damion chokes Lucas. I think its funny. Thanks for the review.

**X-Spark**

really? Boys are that clueless sometimes? And sorry but Fuuta will fight in the next chapter maybe. Too lazy to write in this one. :)

**Phantom shadow mask**

hehehehe, yeah, its going to be a good conversation...

**Jarkes**

hmmm. maybe or maybe not... grins. Area competition is just a compeition where most of the schools in a certain area (don't know how to explain really) and compete. There are lots of schools that go in only if they pass the preliminaries in the UIL (which is before Area).

**Lady of DarkFire**

yikes. I better run. I'll go into the future and escape the past destruction. But would I be dead by then? Then maybe I should escape to the past... lol. XP

By the way, you have a kitty?

**Ketchum Kid**

oh, thank goodness. I was worried that you were one of those people who would review for an OC and never contact again so the writer can't ask questions...

Wii connection? You can do that? I don't have Wii so I have no idea what you're going through, but it must be complicated.

**WildCroconaw**

aww, thanks.

**fatal whispher**

of course I leave off the good parts. Or else no one will read the next chapter. lol.

**flygonmaster330**

thanks for the review!

**CC411**

thanks for the review! You're such a nice person.

**SsX-77**

lol. yeah, girls beating guys are just plain humiliating for the guys. I should know because I made a couple of guys embarassed. :)

**renniegirl**

heh, I love updating random times.

**Aiko**

Congrats on your OC (she'll show up more in the next chapter)! Well, Sparky wants to know things like "why was her hand burnt" and "who's her lover" stuff like that. Anything to make your character described like a main character.

**unknown**

ARRGH! ANOTHER ONE! lol. I love seeing (or reading) how frustrated people can get. Is review that hard? I dunno because I rarely review unless somebody ask me to give them feedback. but most of the time I PM.

Well, I got to find a way to watch Pokemon Dungeon game. Should be worth it.

**Poka**

shhhh

...

well, thanks for all your reviews.

See you in a couple of weeks.

**-JapanDreamer**


	16. I Think You're Very Beautiful

**Disclaimer: Owning Pokemon? Pffft!**

Yo! How are you guys doing? For those who had celebrated it, Happy Thanksgiving! Our family tried to cook for the first time (hahahahaha very fun experience)

Yeah, for those who are wondering, I'm still working on** Rewritten**. I haven't gotten the sad feeling as I read the chapter so I'm redoing it again.

Hey, I got some important news on the bottom, so listen up!

Enjoy the chapter.

**Chapter 14**:

"Is he dead?" Lucas stirred in his death sleep. _Who was that? _Lucas could taste gravel and rocks and realized that he was facing the ground. His whole body felt like it was on fire. He opened his bruised eyes so slightly and saw the dark outline of many boots surrounding him. There was a person crouching next to him.

"Naw, he's still breathing," a young voice, probably a girl's, said. Lucas dimly was aware of two fingers pressed on his wrist, checking for pulse.

"What happened to him?" Somebody whistle in amazement as they continued to inspect Lucas. "This one looked worse off then the rest of us when we were found."

"Judging by the marks on his back, he looked like he was tortured," the girl muttered. Lucas felt his stomach rumbling. There was a silence and the girl's voice added, "And starved to death." There were couple of laughter, but they were immediately turned into unconvincing coughs.

"Come on," a man with a very hoarse voice that sounded as though his voice box had been ripped out of his throat said, "let's take him in." There was a sigh and Lucas felt himself being lifted from the ground.

"Even though he was starved to death, he still weighs a ton," a young teenager voice groaned. It was obviously by the sound of the teenager's voice that he was the one carrying Lucas.

"Shut up and walk," the man with the hoarse voice snapped, "we must hurry before they find us. If they do..." The man didn't say anymore. There was tension in the air and the people moved in quick and fast pace. Lucas immediately felt himself swallow in the state of unconsciousness again and heard no more.

...

"Lucas? LUCAS!" Lucas dimly looked around and found himself back into the present. Fuuta looked at him with a concern look. "You've been kinda spacing out."

Lucas and Fuuta were both walking down the street toward the large television building. There were a lot of girls staring at them while they were passing by, especially as Fuuta even though he acted as though there was nothing strange going on. Pachurisu had been asleep on Fuuta's shoulder, though once in a while it would open its eyes in curiosity.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just dazed for a moment," Lucas smiled. _Stupid, why are you thinking of the past again_. He slapped his check, trying to get a hold of himself. Fuuta stared at Lucas with suspicious eyes but didn't say anything.

_Ask him_, Pachurisu talked softly through Fuuta's mind.

_Now?_

_Better now than later_.

_All right I will_.

"Okay, what's going on?" Fuuta asked. Lucas looked confusingly at Fuuta.

"Sorry?"  
"You've been lying to me and don't deny it," Fuuta added before Lucas could interrupt, "Daniel doesn't have a great-aunt, and I think you're more related to him than you're letting on. What is your relation with him? Brothers?" Lucas realized he was busted. His first thought was to run away, but doing that would lead to more suspicion. Before he could think of anything, something came crashing toward his head.

"OW!" Lucas whimpered at the pain. Fuuta gasped and saw a Starly charging at Lucas again. It didn't take a pure genius to realize that something was wrong.

"Pachurisu Spark!" The squirrel immediately woke up and sent a large load of brilliant blue electricity toward the bird. Before Starly knew what hit it, it immediately fell to the ground. "That was close." Fuuta sighed as he walked over to see the fried bird. Lucas rubbed his head, wincing at the pain. "What kind of bird would attack you out of nowhere?"

"Starly!" Lucas froze. He knew that voice! And that meant... uh oh. Lucas wasn't even surprise when a large hand grabbed him by the throat. "YOU STUPID IDIOT!"

"Whoa!" Fuuta said, shocked at the strange blond hair boy, "Let go of him!"

"Let go of him DAMION!" Fuuta turned around and found a black hair girl following the blond hair boy that she called Damion.

_Wow, she's cute_, Fuuta thought as he watched her gray eyes sparkled under the sun.

_Ah ha,_ Pachurisu slyly interrupted his thoughts, _a pretty girl huh?_  
_Shut up! _Fuuta thought, blushing and wishing Pachurisu couldn't read his thoughts. Pachurisu smirked and went back to sleep.

"What were you thinking?" Fuuta turned around and saw Dawn, literally, killing Lucas. Literally.

"I'm sorry Dawn!" Lucas squeaked, "I totally forgot about you guys and then I met Fuuta here..."

"Who?" Dawn turned around and faced Fuuta for the first time. "Oh, hi. Nice to meet you." And she went back to lecturing Lucas.

"Please to meet you too, Miss Dawn," Fuuta replied in his most polite tone he could muster. Dawn looked at him puzzling but smiled. Damion, realizing what was going on, glared at Fuuta.

"Excuse me," Damion interrupted, "were you the one who attacked my Starly?"

"Yeah," Fuuta said, "so?"

"Uh, can you apologize Mr. Polite?"

"Hey, your Pokemon attacked Lucas," Fuuta pointed out, "In terms of self defense, I don't think I need to apologize."

"Hey! I order the attack because this kid needs to be taught a lesson."

"And I didn't know. Listen," Fuuta changed the subject, "would you like to go out for lunch or something?" He directed this question toward Dawn.

"Don't do this again! You realize how many strangers we have to... wait what?" Dawn turned around, surprised at the question.

"You know, go out for lunch or something," Fuuta said casually. Dawn blushed in embarrassment, but before Fuuta could get a reply, Damion barged in.

"Excuse us for a moment." Damion dragged Dawn and Lucas away from Fuuta.

"What's going on?" Dawn asked.

"Do you see what that guy was doing?"

"He was offering us free lunch," Lucas said happily. Damion hit Lucas and turned his attention to Dawn.

"That guy was flirting with you!"

"What?" Dawn laughed, "No he's not. He's just acting like a gentleman, unlike you."

"I'm serious!" Damion hissed, "What kind of trainer would just offer you lunch out of nowhere."

"Damion, he's just acting polite," Dawn said, "Anyways, what kind of person would think of me as pretty enough to go out on a date?"

"I think you're very beautiful," Lucas said out of the blue. Dawn looked at Lucas with shock. Damion looked at Lucas as if he had just said that he was an alien from outer space.

"What?"  
"Really," Lucas said seriously, "I do." Dawn smiled shyly and shook her head.

"That's really nice of you to say that," Dawn replied happily. Damion whacked Lucas' head.

"That's a really stupid thing to say," Damion hissed in Lucas' ear.

"Really?" Lucas wondered, confused.

"Yeah, girls don't like it when you just say that out of nowhere. Dawn is probably restraining herself from killing you right now."

"Oh," Lucas made a mental note not to do that again, "Okay, I won't say that again."

"Good."

"Excuse me." Damion, Lucas, and Dawn turned around and saw that Fuuta was still waiting impatiently for them to finish their conversation. "So how about it?"  
"Well..." Dawn said, still dazed from Lucas' statement.  
"How about a battle instead?" Damion said quickly.

"What?" Fuuta looked at him confused. Dawn and Lucas looked at each other. _Why does Damion want to battle so much?_

"Yeah," Damion said casually, "You seem a strong type. Why not battle me?" Fuuta shook his head and started chuckling, leaving Damion confused and ticked off. "What's so funny?"

"Nothing," Fuuta shook his head, still smiling, "I just don't think that's a good idea."

"Scared?"  
"No," Fuuta said, shaking his head, "It's just that you obviously just started traveling. You're not strong enough to battle somebody who has been traveling way longer than you have."

"Watch me," Damion grinned. Fuuta shrugged and looked at Pachurisu. The little squirrel opened one eye and without hesitation jumped to the ground in battle position.

"All right then," Fuuta sighed, "Just don't expect to win."  
"I should say the same thing for you," Damion grinned, "Go Chimchar!"

...

Two seconds later...

"Finished already?" Dawn looked surprise. Pachurisu stared dimly at the electrocuted Chimchar before it climbed back on Fuuta's shoulder.

"Well, I did train a lot," Fuuta shrugged, "So it's not like it was a fair battle." Damion growled angrily at Fuuta but didn't say a word. That was twice he lost in a Pokemon battle today. How embarrassing.

"Well, that's okay," Lucas smiled, "Damion will get stronger."

"Of course I will," Damion said to Lucas as if he was an idiot, "I just started out, so a little more practice is all I need."

"Now that the battle is over," Fuuta said slyly, "Dawn would you-"

"Oh would you look at the time," Damion interrupted loudly, even though he wasn't wearing a watch, "I think it is time for us to go!" Before Dawn and Lucas could say anything, they were both being dragged by Damion.

"Hey wait!" Fuuta yelled, but the three trainers were out of sight, "Ah, man. And she was pretty cute too."

_You snooze, you lose_. Pachurisu yawned.

"You're the one snoozing, not me," Fuuta pointed out, but Pachurisu didn't say another word. Fuuta continued to walk down the road before he realized something. "Ah, shoot!"

_What?_ Pachurisu asked, sudden at this outburst.

"I forgot to ask about Lucas," Fuut gritted his teeth, "Damn!"

_Don't worry_, Pachurisu sighed, _We'll see those three again_.

"How can you be sure?" Fuuta asked, confused.

_I know so._ The little squirrel gave a sly grin before it continued its nap, leaving its trainer totally confused.

**Author's Notes**

"I think you're beautiful." HAHAHA. I always wanted Lucas to just say that out of the blue. Very cute in my opinion.

urgh this chapter was still pretty tough for me. Does anybody know how guys flirt with girls? I'm clueless cuz I'm one of those ugly girls that nobody would look at, so understanding how guys get girls attention is pretty hard for me to understand...

Okay, important news.

First off, this is the LAST time I'm going to be giving special thanks to reviewers of this story. From now on, its PM. And for those who don't have an account, I will talk to you if I have questions. I'm so sorry and I know there are people who'll miss it, but I seriously can't write and thank every single person in the Author's Notes. TOO MANY! I'm not stopping you from reviewing (in fact don't stop!), I love reviews, and the more I get, the faster I update. (HINT! HINT!)

Second, I don't know what to do about contest. I'm thinking about the anime, but I really want to do it like the game... sigh. Keep thinking of those appeals.

Third, I am going to list all of the OC's name. If yours is not on here, please notify me ASAP and I'll try to find it in my heap of emails AGAIN! Or just send me another copy to save me trouble...

...

Lindsay

Jeffery Townsend

Hero

Kenna

Lily

Fuuta

Eri

Rema

Storm

Tory

Xia

Terra

...

yeah, that's all I have. Please notify me if you do not see your OC among this list. Thank you.

Now please join me as we view** JapanDreamer**'s last personal thanks to reviewers for this story.

...

**WildCroconaw**

uhhh, please refer to the previous 15 chapters for answers? lol.

**flygonmaster330**

final?

**Ketchum Kid**

okay that's good (phew) Having 200 reviews in 15 chapters is amazing? Wow, I need to get out more. lol. thanks for the review.

**phantom shadow mask**

I dunno. I'll think about it, but that is a good idea. thanks for reviewing

**SsX-77**

lol. yup, Lucas is hopeless. Thanks for the review!

**Lady of DarkFire**

MUHAHAHAHA! Fear me and my logic! lol.

I envy you and your cat. I don't even have a pet.

**X-Spark**

Awesome with your side story (Is it up yet?). Congrats on having a new record. I'll eat some leftover pie for us to celebrate. hahaha.

**Blake Wilson**

thank you so much for your review. Hope to see you again.

**dark5523**

O.O Um, thank you for you very long review about all of your OC. I really appreciate it.

**renniegirl**

yes, I'll use OCs again in later chapters. When? well that's hard to determine... thanks for your review.

**Aiko**

Hey, sorry Rema is not here, but I wanted to finish with Fuuta so I could give you a dedicated FULL chapter about your OC. Sorry!

**Jarkes**

thanks for the review. Oh, and your comment in **Johto** chapter... that girl was my OC.... lol.

**HelloEri**

Eek! its you! I miss you! Don't worry, school is keeping us all busy. lol.

**fatal whispher**

oooo, pep rally. I never really like those things. Too much noise and no fun in my opinion. Well, glad that you still found time to review!

**CcC411**

eh, no problem with the contest. Busy as well. lol. thanks for the review.

**TakariFan8816**

Oh, its Aiko's OC. I'll have info about it in the next chapter.

**Unknown**

well, you're the last reviewer I'm thanking. Ha! Don't worry about Jeffery. He'll come. Yeah, I know my **Author Notes** are crazy. That's why I'm cutting it down.

...

Well there you have it. (sniff) Please continue to review anyways and I'll see you in the next chapter!

-**JapanDreamer**


	17. Invisible Snow

**Disclaimer: Jingle bells, Jingle bells. Jingle all the way. Oh what fun it is to put a disclaimer on holidays- hey! (I do not own Pokemon.)  
**

Please ignore my disclaimer if you do not like the revised song...

I'm so happy! No more school for two weeks!

Great news.** X-Spark** has managed to post up the side story of this **DP **story. Read and enjoy. Also those with OCs, there are important news I must inform you. Please see **Author's Notes** later.

Anyways. Happy holidays to everyone. I hope you have fun with your family during this time. Or something like that...

Now a word before this chapter.

I didn't really want to post up a chapter that had nothing to do with the upcoming holidays, so I made a special chapter. This has nothing to do with the previous chapters so just think of it as an extra.

Also, I'm preparing for final exams during the holidays, so updates will not be posted once every three weeks as usual. Sorry folks but my future is at stake here. (:O

Anyways, enjoy the chapter.

**Special Chapter: Invisible Snow  
**

_I don't remember the first time I saw snow... I think... I think... I had never seen snow in my life... I wonder what it feels like. Is it so cold that will chill my heart forever? Is it a warm soft and fluffy white cotton candy that will melt in my mouth?_

_Is snow something to be happy or sad about? Is it something that can be shared or something to be dreamed of?_

_I wish I knew. I wish I knew... _

_I wish I could see the snow..._

...

"Hey, wake up!" I woke up with a start at the voice of my friend. I shivered in the dark, wishing I had a blanket. I felt my long silky straight hair fall down to my waist. The color? I did not know. The room was pitch black, but then again, everywhere I go, it is pitch black. Ignoring the voice, I went back to sleep. Or at least, I tried to.

"Wake up!" The voice cried again, this time a hand shook my shoulder until I couldn't ignore it any longer.

"What, Lucas?!" I asked impatiently pushing my hair back.

"Morning!" the voice replied cheerfully. Lucas, about 8 years old, the same age as I, was sitting next to me, holding my hands in his. It seemed to warm up the icy feeling I had in my heart. I waited for him to continue but there was nothing more but silence.

"That's it?" I snapped. "Morning? You just came in to my room just to say good morning?!" I groaned and fell onto my small pallet and went back to sleep. Lucas once again shook my shoulder.

"Sorry," Lucas whispered, "But that's not all. Mr. Nova wants to see you." He said the name with great fear in his voice. In my head, I groaned again. Mr. Nova usually never called me when I was asleep unless it was something important.

"Fine, tell him I'll be up in a minute," I muttered sleepily.

"Okay," Lucas hurried out of my room and closed the door quietly. With a sigh, I got out of my sleep and hurried to dress up in the dark room. Although I couldn't see where everything was, I felt it from my feet. The strong vibrations with each step I took seemed to speak to me, telling me where everything was. Still, I moved with caution. I never liked to act reckless like Lucas. He was the one who ended up with more bruises than the whole group together. Yet people say that his smile seems to make up for his lack of ability. But what could I tell?

Without further ado, I walked out of the door and down the stony hall. The rocks underneath me seem to vibrate dully. I could hear water dripping down from the top of the underground passage. The rocks seemed to freeze me from my feet up to my head.

"Hey over here!" I turned my head toward the sound of Lucas' voice. Before I could react, he grabbed my hand and dragged me towards the right room.

"I know where to go," I snapped, trying to wiggle my hand out of Lucas.

"I know that," Lucas said happily, "but it'll be faster if I just take you there."

"I don't need help," I finally pulled my hand out and walked briskly down the hall. The wind whipped my hair into the air. I could hear footsteps behind me and knew that Lucas was following me.

"Why does Mr. Nova want you?" Lucas asked. I shrugged my shoulders and continued walking in the brisk fashion I usually walked when I was on duty.

"Don't know. He didn't tell you?"

"No," Lucas replied, "I just happen to come across The Room and he asked me to get you." I remained silent and to pass time, Lucas started spouting news that he had overheard.

"You know Larry? The one who lost an arm? He managed to blow up one of the factories but it was already abandoned. And Sarah, the girl who became mute after she saw her entire family murdered before her, managed to capture some Pokemon that were injured. I got to help her!" I could hear a hint of pride in Lucas' voice.

"That's nice," I said, annoyed. I felt like screaming at him, telling him that I already knew. I was there when they made the announcements. Why was it people treated me as if I can't hear?

"Oh we're here," Lucas announced. _I know._ Sometimes, I felt like chocking the kid even though he was about two months older than me and way taller than I was. I will never understand Lucas. He seems to act all cheerful, yet I never understand if he acts stupid on purpose or not. Never have I heard him cry or even angry. It was always that cheerful or dazed voice that I hear from him.

"I'll see you later then," I muttered.

"Bye, Elena!" Lucas' footsteps became faint until I could hear it no longer.

_Elena_. How long had it been since I heard that name? I sighed as I opened the heavy wooden door. As I turned the brass knob, I could immediately feel the presence of our leader - Mr. Nova.

Mr. Nova was a scientist that used to work for Team Galactic, the leaders that were controlling this infested world. Nova had been kicked out and left to die after he failed to capture a legendary Pokemon. He organized this group ever since for a perfect chance for revenge. Although most of us doesn't and never will like him, he was an important ally for us.

"Assassin, how are you?" the wheezy voice asked from the depth of the dark cold room.

"Fine thank you," I said softly before I closed the door behind me, relieved with the name Nova called me. It was more suitable for somebody like me - cold and heartless.

"I apologize for waking you up again after one mission but I need you again."

"What is it?" I felt around for a chair and sat down professionally.

"Simply put, we found out their motives." I sat up even straighter in my chair.

"What? Is that possible? How did you get the info?"

"You remember Larry?"

"Yes," I said quickly, "he destroyed a factory that turned out to be abandoned. What about it?"

"Some idiot left a disk containing top secret data and I managed to decipher the code," Nova exclaimed excitedly.

"But why haven't you said anything to the others?" I asked.

"Why, we need to wait for the perfect moment to strike."

"Let me guess," I said before Nova could say anything else, "You want me to steal more information. Am I right?"

"Correct," Nova slid something across the table. After several tries, I finally got the object and saw that it was a locator disk.

"Of course it won't help you a lot," Nova explained, "But with this I can help guide you to the secret lab. Now that I know what we're looking for, finding the right data will be easy."

"I see," I said slowly. I strapped the heavy bulky object to my waist pouch. "Is there anything else?"

"No," Nova shook his head, "The mission will take place tonight. Get some rest until then."

"Thank you, sir." I saluted and walked out of the door and back into the hallway. But before I could take another step, I knocked into something and fell over.

"Ouch! Sorry Elena!"

"Lucas! Stop this! You always keep hitting into me and never seem to understand the concept of moving!" I felt my anger bubble but I couldn't stop holding it back.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry," Lucas repeated over and over, "But I want to show you something. Hurry!" Before I could protest, saying that I need to sleep, Lucas grabbed me by the arm and dragged me down the hall, away from my room.

"Lucas I don't have time," I tried to explain.

"I know! But this is so special!" It was then I realize that we were going through the path that leads to do the outdoor. I carefully climbed the stairs as Lucas continued to pull me along. Finally, he opened the door that led from the underground world the outside world. He tugged me out until I tripped and landed on something, surprisingly soft. I felt it between my hands. It was cold and melted quickly, turning into water.

"What... is this?" For the first time in my life, I felt surprised.

"It's snow!" Lucas smiled. He pulled me up and held my hands together into a cup form. At first I didn't know what to expect until I felt something light and soft in the very palms of my hand.

"Is this...?"

"You always told me you never felt snow before so I waited outside everyday until I saw snow falling down for the first time. I wanted you to be the first to experience it." My heart stopped for a moment. That's why he always shared late news with me. He was never there when they announced it in fear of missing the snow. He waited this day to show it to me...

"So," Lucas' worried voice asked, "Do you like it?" I couldn't see the snow, let to know what to expect, but knowing how much he cared about me, I started to cry.

"Yes," I said through silent tears, "it is the most beautiful thing I have ever felt."

...

_I never saw snow and I never can do. But I don't need to. Snow is simply water that has frozen due to temperature. It is little more than the weather._

_However, it brought great memories in my heart. I was able to share it with somebody who cared about me even though I tried to push him away. He was able to melt the snow in my heart._

_That day was the first time I have ever cried with happiness. And it was also my last..._

**Author's Notes**

......... Normally I would try to say something funny here, but... I won't

Well if you're confuse with the chapter, I apologize. It was completely random and out of my head. I'll explain this chapter more when we get deeper into Lucas' past.

**PEOPLE WITH OCS/OCS IN CONTESTS. PLEASE READ THE STATEMENTS BELOW!!!!**

Now, I finally decided how I'm going to do my contests.

1) I will use the game mode. (aka. Dressing up, dancing) but keep the appeals in the anime (because it is more interesting.) If you have not or do not understand what I mean game part. PM me and I'll try to find a site where it'll explain clearly.

**NEW UPDATE**: some of you have forgotten to put in which Pokemon you want to dress up. **PLEASE REMEMBER THIS!**

2) You may now send in the appeals to correspond my contests choice.

3) Hurry! The first three people who send it in will be the first three to be in the contest. (Note: this is probably a lie and I'll end up using everybody but just to be on the safe side, its best you post fast.)

4) Also, because the contest is complicated, I won't do a lot of contests throughout the story...

Okay, for those who have OCs and allowed** X-Spark** to use them in his side story, please list the things below in a **PM FOR HIM**! Not me!! Those who can't PM. Give me the info in review and I'll send it in a PM to **X-Spark**.

**Hometown:**

**OCs personal history:**

**Name:**

**Age:**

**Others: (Put things important like siblings, r they orphans, anything significant happened in their life? etc.)  
**

Anyways, now to thank my reviewers in a more short and concise way...

....

thank you

**X-Spark**

** Brenediction**

**grammaguy**

**Jarkes**

**Aiko**

**Phantom shadow mask**

**dark5523**

**Ketchum Kid**

**xoxbb**

**Lady of DarkFire**

**SsX-77**

**Starlight Amethyst**

**Unknown**

**CC411**

**renniegirl**

for reviewing.

...

Wow, that wasn't too bad.

Thank you for reviewing and I look forward to seeing you next time.

happy holidays.

**-JapanDreamer  
**


	18. Okay, We're Held Hostage Now What?

**Disclaimer: The author has spoken. "I do not own Pokemon."  
**

hahaha, I said that I wouldn't update anymore on the holidays but I still did. I figure since the last chapter was so sad, I should improve the mood with happy bunnies and rainbows!

..... Okay, no bunnies, but i tried to add humor here.

This chapter is REALLY long, so you better enjoy it. **Rema **is back by the way. Oh yeah, **Aiko**, **X-Spark** has put **Rema** in his side story. Check it out if you have time.

**PLEASE READ MY AUTHOR NOTES! VERY IMPORTANT INFO AGAIN!**

Well, let's get on with this chapter.

**Chapter 15:**

"Damion, do you have any idea what an idiot you are?"

"I am not an idiot, Dawn!" Damion snapped angrily. Dawn gave him a strange look, making Damion once again feel uncomfortable. After dragging Dawn and Lucas down the street for more than thirty minutes... well, Dawn wasn't too happy. Lucas had a glum look on his face, like a little kid that had just been bullied and lost his lunch. All three of them were in the middle of the city, obviously having quite an animated discussion.

"No food," Lucas sighed.

"Forget about the food will ya?!" Damion groaned, "I was completely humiliated by that kid!"

"Damion if you haven't noticed, you were the one who was asking for it," Dawn said, making a perfectly sound excuse.

"No food."

"Two battles! I lost to two trainers on day one. That is completely embarrassing!"

"Damion, you're bound to lose to trainers one day. Besides, you just started training. What did you expect?"

"No food."

"If we buy something later," Damion said, completely annoyed at Lucas' repeated words, "will you just shut up?"

"Yes," Lucas replied.

"Fine, let's go and get something to eat," Damion snapped. Dawn sighed at Lucas' behavior. She couldn't believe that this was the same kid who just said she was... No don't think about that. Dawn shook her head to clear it and noticed somebody in the crowd that seemed to stick out.

"Dawn," Damion said, noticing Dawn's change in expression, "What are you-" Realizing who it was, Dawn ran down the street to catch up with the person. "Hey, wait up!"

Lucas and Damion ran to catch up with Dawn who seemed to move faster than they were in the incredibly crowded streets.

"Dawn! What are you doing?" Dawn ignored Damion's repeated question and reached out to the stranger's hand.

"Hey, you're that girl who bumped into me right?" The dark brown hair girl turned wildly at Dawn and tried to flee but Dawn grabbed the girl's arm and held her still. "Your hand... what happened to it?" The girl turned bright red at this statement and didn't say anything. Dawn inspected the girl's hand and noticed the dirty bandages that wrapped around the girl's hand.

"Its nothing," the girl said, trying to release her hand from Dawn's grasp, "Don't worry about it."

"No it's not okay," Dawn snapped, "these bandages are poorly wrap and really worn out. It is better if you get new ones before your hands become infected." With that said, Dawn dragged the girl to the Pokemon Center that happen to be close by.

"W-wait, I don't even know you! My hand is fine, really!" Dawn turned a deaf ear on the girl's comment as they sat down in one of the couches provided in the Pokemon Center. Damion and Lucas ran into the Pokemon Center after Dawn and her strange new friend.

"Dawn!" Damion gasped, "Why did you - hey, wait a minute! You're that girl who bumped into Dawn!" The brown hair girl turned bright red again and looked down to the ground in embarrassment.

"Damion! Please be more polite!" Dawn snapped, and she turned her direction to the girl. "Hi. As you know, I'm Dawn. The blond kid is Damion and the one in the red hat is Lucas."

"Hi," Lucas said, smiling. The girl remained silent as Dawn took out her first-aid-kit in her bag.

"Rema," the girl said quietly. Dawn removed the bandages to reveal red raw burnt hands that made both Damion and Lucas wince at the sight.

"What the heck happened to your arm?" Damion asked rudely. Lucas stared at the hands with continued horror. He could almost feel the haunted dreams of his past creeping up at him.

"Nothing," Rema murmured.

"Okay Rema," Dawn said, taking out a bottle filled with liquid and used a Q-tip to take some of the liquid out, "This might sting a little." She placed the Q-tip on Rema's hand and gently dabbed the liquid on Rema's wounds.

Rema winced at the pain but held still. Dawn expertly grabbed some bandages and wrapped them tightly around Rema's hand.

"That should hold for a week or so," Dawn declared after putting her first-aid-kit back into the bag, "Be careful and ask a doctor to take a look at it if you have time."

"Thank you," Rema said quietly, inspecting her freshly wrapped hands, "You're pretty good at this stuff."

"I've gotten a couple of injuries before," Dawn explained, shooting Damion the look. "I memorized what my doctor did to treat them."

"Well it's not my fault you got..." Damion mumbled in the background, while Lucas looked at him, confused and interested at the same time.

"Thanks, Dawn," Rema happily exclaimed, "Say, why don't I take you out to lunch? It'll be my treat."

"Really?" Lucas said happily, and it was followed by a grin. Rema immediately fell silent at Lucas' question and started to mumble something that only Dawn could hear.

"She meant only me, Lucas," Dawn explained. Lucas' cheerful face immediately drooped into sadness.

"Oh, okay..." Lucas sighed. Rema immediately felt flustered and embarrassed, trying to figure out some way to make Lucas feel better.

"Don't worry about him," Damion replied as though he was reading Rema's thoughts, "He's a sucker for food."

"Well, I'm hungry," Lucas explained.

"Whatever, I'll treat you out for some fast food," Damion sighed, "Dawn, I'll meet you back here later."

"Okay," Dawn agreed, a little surprised at Damion's attitude toward the whole situation. Damion dragged the sad Lucas out of the Pokemon Center.

"Are your friends mad at me?," Rema asked in a worried voice. Dawn shook her head.

"No, its fine. Lucas is a baby, but Damion will feed him. Besides, I don't think Damion would want to eat right now."

"Why not?"

"He wants to get stronger," Dawn said simply, and didn't elaborate.

...

"Damion, when are we going to eat?" Lucas asked as Damion lead him farther and farther away from the city.

"Later! Right now, I need to train."

"Train? We have to train in order to eat?"

Damion gave Lucas an irritated thwack on the head. "NO! Train my Pokemon to get stronger!"

"Why?" Lucas asked, rubbing his head. Damion sure knew how to hit someone.

"Are you seriously asking me that question?" Damion asked Lucas as if he was an idiot. Lucas remained confused but still smiled that goofy smile. "Urgh! Unlike you, I have a goal to become the best Pokemon trainer."

Damion continued to walk to the edge of town as Lucas trailed behind him.

"So?"

"So, by training, I can become a stronger trainer," Damion explained.

"Oh," Lucas thought carefully.

"I don't understand you," Damion groaned, "you want to become a Pokemon trainer, yet I don't see you trying at all."

"What do you mean?"

"You don't challenge trainers. You don't train. You don't even act like you want to become better. What's wrong with you?" Lucas looked blankly at Damion and didn't say anything while Damion continued to lecture. "I mean, you could at least understand that becoming a strong trainer requires battling in order to bond with Pokemon. Why don't you?"

"Cuz' it _hurts_," Lucas said simply. Damion gaped at Lucas' response.

"What?"

"It hurts," Lucas stated again, this time with a sad look in his eyes, "The Pokemon must have felt a lot of pain when battling. It must hurt." Damion looked at Lucas strangely.

"Well," Damion said uncomfortably, "Of course it hurts, but by training them, you can get them stronger so it won't have to hurt." Lucas didn't say anything and continued to look dazed. "Hey, are you ok-"

"Excuse me!" A loud voice interrupted them, causing Damion to jump from surprise. "Are you guys trainers?" Damion turned around and saw a large man, wearing enormous overalls.

"Yeah," Damion mumbled. Lucas nodded his head as well.

"Why don't you have a Poketch?"

"Excuse me?" Damion asked confused.

"Poketch," the man said again, incredulous, showing a large strange looking blue watch whose strap seemed to be bulging on the fat man's wrist.

"No," Damion and Lucas replied, both shaking their heads.

"You got to get one!" the man said, super hyper now, "The head director is giving out free Poketches if you play their game and win."

"Sorry, but not interested," Damion said flatly.

"Me neither," Lucas said as well.

"Please excuse us," Damion said firmly as he walked to the fields at the edge of town.

"Wait!" the man said shock, "you don't want a Poketch?!"

"Nope," Damion said shaking his head, "There's no point in having one."

"B-but everybody has one!" The man screamed, "you have to have one or else!"

_What's this man's problem?_ Damion thought, whilst narrowing his eyes. Lucas looked wide-eyed at the fear on the man's face.

"Or else what?" Lucas asked fearfully.

"You can't leave this town to go to Orenburgh! They got this whole town held hostage."

"WHAT!?" Damion yelled, "You have got to be _-insert inappropriate word here-_ kidding me!"

"But it's true!" the man looked around as if he was afraid somebody was overhearing them.

"Who's holding us in this town?" Lucas asked confused.

The man, still scared, said the two words of the name of the group of people that were taking the whole town hostage...

...

"Wow," Dawn laughed as she drank her orange juice, "you've been traveling a lot." Dawn and Rema were sitting on plastic chairs outside under one of the large umbrellas of a small shop that sold small desserts such as cake, ice cream, and other stuff. The sun shone brightly, leaving a large shadow over Dawn and Rema, leaving them cool despite the hot weather.

"Yup," Rema smiled, "I really enjoy seeing the world." Rema took a small bite of her carrot cake before continuing. "The world is so big with so many different types of Pokemon. It's almost impossible to not enjoy what's out there."

"I envy you," Dawn grinned, "I wish I could see the entire world. You must have a great time, huh? Were you traveling with anyone?" Rema fell silent all of a sudden and seemed to look downcast. "What's wrong? Something I said?" Dawn looked concern at Rema.

"No, its nothing," Rema smiled, "I... I traveled the world not for fun, but to search for someone." Rema's brown eyes seem to look so distant and sad at the same time.

"Really?" Dawn said surprised, "Friend of yours?" Rema blushed bright red and started to stutter.

"Well... he is a f-friend, b-but t-to me he... he... I r-really l-lik-" Rema felt really embarrass and didn't continue the sentence, "I don't remember his name or his voice. All I can see when I think about him is his eyes... I know the search is desperate since I don't remember him, but I can't help but think..." Rema couldn't finish what she wanted to say. She had never told anybody her secret before and was starting to regret it.

"Wow, that's amazing," Dawn smiled warmly, "I think you're brave."

"Eh? Really?" Rema asked, confused.

"You want to search for someone you care about. Although you don't remember who he is or what he looks like, you still want to meet him. I think... that type of determination is the type of bravery most of us don't have." Dawn smiled, embarrassed. "Sorry it sounds stupid, but that's what I think. We usually hold on tightly to what we have but we usually never try to throw them away in hopes of something better. Going for it is what I believe courage is about."

Rema stared starry-eyed at Dawn. "Wow, I never thought of it like that."

"Well, it's my opinion," Dawn shrug, "But anyways, I'm sure you'll be able to find that guy."

"Thanks for the boost of confidence," Rema laughed, "Now I know I'll find him one day-"

"Dawn Dawn Dawn we got a big big big big problem!" Dawn and Rema turned around, shocked to find Damion and Lucas running towards them. Both of them seemed to be scared of something, and Damion was almost hyperventilating from saying so much so quick.

"What's the matter?" Dawn asked.

"There is this group of hostile people that are won't let us leave town!" Damion exploded, even though Dawn and Rema were two feet away from him.

"What?!" Dawn and Rema exclaimed, "You're joking!"

"No, its true," Lucas said frightened, "We even saw them."

"Whoa," Dawn said, confused, "You _saw_ them?"

"Yeah," Damion explained, "wearing the weirdest clothes I have ever seen."

Dawn frowned. Why would a group of people take this entire town hostage?

"Do you know who they are?" Rema asked.

"Yeah," Damion said, "their name seemed to be spelt out from the clothes they wore."

"Who are they?" Rema asked.

Lucas and Damion looked at each other before speaking.

"Clowns!"

**Author's Notes**

HAHAHAHAHA! You guys thought it was somebody else right?

HAHAHAHAHAhahahaha...ha..ha... okay, I really need to work on my laugh.

Okay for those who played the game, you know what I'm talking about in this chapter. For those who do not, well, in Jubilife City, you can not leave the place to go to Oregburgh until you get your Poketch. In order to even get the freakin Poketch, you have to find three stupid clowns all over the city. I hated the fact I had to waste my time all over the city... so REVENGE in the next chapter.

All right news!

First off for OCs going to be in the Pokemon Contest.

**Some of you guys forgot the dress up part of the game. (cough... ketchum kid)**

Anyways don't forget about that. For those who haven't thought of an appeal. I can make up one for you but I just wanted to give you a chance to... you know shine.

**OH! NEWS FLASH! I READ THE 29th BOOK OF POKEMON SPECIAL!! WHOOT! I found a store where they sell Pokemon Special manga. I'm sooo happy.  
**

let's thank my reviewers now...

...

thank you

**Ss-X77**

**grammaguy**

**phantom shadow mask**

**Luda59**

**X-Spark**

**Ketchum Kid**

**renniegirl**

**Aiko**

**Jarkes**

**Unknown**

**Lady of DarkFire**

**CC411**

for reviewing

...

Well, now that that is done, off to do more homework!

Thank you for your reviews and I'll see you next time.

**-JapanDreamer  
**


	19. Split Up

**Disclaimer: Don't Own Pokemon.**

Hey guys! Sorry I haven't been updating, but last week I had final exam, so I haven't been on the computer for a while. Also the weekend right after finals, I got a sore throat so I've been in bed when I should be celebrating. I'm still sick but its not a big deal now.

Anyways, I apologize for not updating, and the fact that this chapter is short and sucks.

I wanted to do my revenge on the clowns in this chapter, but I think its best if I go back to bed and eat some medicine.

Enjoy the chapter!

**Chapter 16:**

"It's not funny!" Damion yelled as Dawn and Rema started to laugh. Apparently to them, the situation _was_ funny. Dawn responded to Damion's comment by laughing harder than before. Lucas looked fairly embarrassed now while Damion looked infuriated at the two girls who are obviously not taking the situation seriously. A couple of people were watching the group with interest. Its not everyday one sees a guy being laughed at by girls.

"Clowns?!" Dawn asked through a choked voice, "We're being held hostage by the circus?" She wiped a couple of tears from her eyes.

"What's so funny about that?" Damion asked angrily. Dawn and Rema both calmed down after taking a couple of deep breaths.

"Why would they want to take this place?" Rema said reasonably, "They don't gain anything if they go with this."

"We heard from a very reliable source," Damion defended himself. Lucas stared at the group for a moment before noticing the café. His face brightened up a bit when he saw the large quantities of hot cinnamon, cake, donuts. He could smell hot coffee coming from the store and started to wonder when lunch will be served.

"Yeah, I bet you got some weird guy off the street who just suddenly yelled out you, screaming that this place is being held hostage," Dawn scoffed at Damion's explanation. Damion turned bright red from embarrassment and started to mumble something.

"Listen, I got to go," Rema smiled, "I love your joke and all, but I think it is time for me to leave."

"So soon?" Dawn asked surprise.

"It's not a joke!" Damion yelled, interrupting the conversation, "Anyways you can't leave this town without a Poketech!" Rema pulled out the watch from her pocket and showed it to Damion

"Got one for my birthday," Rema said before continuing her conversation with Dawn. "Yeah, that secret," Rema smiled, "I'm going to hold on to it. I'm not going to lose my chance." Dawn shook her head smiling; leaving both Damion and Lucas puzzled at the behavior.

"Hope to see you again," Rema hugged Dawn.

"Yeah, I'll miss you too." Rema hurried off and left the group. Her eyes were sparkling with new hope and a dream. There was a silence as Rema left to the road that leaded to Orengburgh.

"But you know, it is true," Lucas said, breaking the conversation and looking at Dawn, "I asked one of the travelers from the street. Apparently it's some sort of promotion for the new Poketech."

"Let me get this straight," Dawn said slowly, "They're so desperate to get rid of these watches that instead of selling them for millions of dollars, they decided to give them away for free and lose money instead of gain?"

"Uhhhhh," Lucas thought for a moment, trying to understand what Dawn was saying, "Yeah, whatever you said." _Millions of dollars? Just how much do those watches cost?_

"Boy, they're a bunch of idiots if you ask me," Dawn said annoyed, "I'm going to talk to the company manager and give them a lesson on economics." Dawn stormed off toward the Poketech company building.

"Wait Dawn!" Damion looked bewildered at this attitude and immediately followed. Lucas sighed, wishing that Dawn would wait until after lunch, and followed both of the trainers.

...

"The manager had disappeared," Dawn said, confused. The three of them were on the streets, the crowd of people increased by the minute.

"Probably because so many trainers were complaining like we were," Lucas reasoned out.

"Then the only logical thing to do is to get those stupid coupons from those clowns," Damion said impatiently, "I want to hurry up and get to the next town."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Dawn groaned, "How are we going to find all three of them? You can barely read a map."  
"HEY!" Damion snapped, "Reading a map is not important!" Dawn stared at with a disbelief look.

"Okay, here's an idea," Lucas replied, "We'll split up. Three clowns equal three people. We'll take three coupons from each clown to save time."

"That's a great idea," Dawn said, "Okay, we'll do that. We'll meet back at the Pokemon Center before sundown."  
"Do we really need to split up?"  
"If we're just getting coupons, then there is no need for us to be separated," Dawn reasoned, "We'll work faster."

"Can we eat lunch first?" Lucas asked sadly.  
"NO!" Dawn and Damion yelled at the same time. Lucas stared at the ground with puppy eyes as Dawn and Damion left.

Why is it that they never do things he wanted?

**Author's Notes**

This sucks....

Okay, first of all, I'm sorry if I didn't PM you, saying thank you for reviewing. I probably won't be able to contact any of you for a while so yeah, back to bed for me.

All right now to thank the reviewers.

...

Thank you

**Jarkes, Aiko, X-Spark, Lady of DarkFire, SsX-77, renniegirl, SynctrainerLucas, dark5523, unknown, phantom shadow, Blake Wilson, and Ketchum Kid**

for reviewing.

...

thanks for reading and I'll see you later when my throat stops killing me.

**-JapanDreamer**


	20. REVENGE ON THE CLOWNS!

**Disclaimer: Clowns don't own Pokemon**

Hey guys! I'm feeling a lot better. Some sort of flu is going around school and everybody got sick. I'm so glad that you guys were understanding and to make it up, I wrote like an epic chapter of all chapters. lol. This chapter is to make up for the last one.

FINALLY! REVENGE! MUHAHAHAH! I thoroughly enjoyed writing this chapter and I'm completely satisfied with it. I tried to make it as funny as possible.

Anyways enjoy and I hope this chapter made up for the last one.

**Chapter 17:**

Right next to the Jubilife City was a young male teenager just standing there, looking very embarrassed and downright bored. Well, anyone would be too if they were dressed up as a clown. In fact, he doesn't even have a name. The boss of that company referred to him as Clown 1. Clown 1... Sounds more like a product's serial number than a name.

Clown 1 was wearing one of those yellow joker fealty hats with white pompom hanging down. He had on a large yellow shirt with oversize buttons and white frills on the collar and sleeves. Somehow, the shirt seemed to hold air like balloons and made Clown 1 looked as though as if he had gain over 50 pounds. He wore yellow and red vertical striped puffy pants. He had on white tights and yellow pointed shoes. Compare to the other people on the street, Clown 1 looked like a total idiot, which is what he felt like. Also, with many trainers and travelers coming towards him to get a ticket, he could tell that they were all trying very, very hard not to laugh in any shape or form. He had on white makeup around his mouth and eyes. A bright red rubber ball was attached to his nose.

Clown 1 sighed as he looked at the sky. Why in the world did he decide to take this stupid, embarrassing job? He remembered seeing the head company of this entire organization explaining that dressing up in an outrageous costume should attract travelers. Some stupid person suggested that clowns seem to be a good idea and so, here he is, dressed up as if he belonged to the circus.

He suddenly noticed a young girl coming straight toward him. She had on a white cloth hat with a pink Pokeball symbol on it and a black and pink mini dress. Clown 1 knew immediately what the girl wanted and stood up straighter as she came closer.

"Hi," the girl said, "I would like three coupons for the Poketch." Clown 1 looked baffled at the girl's demand and cleared his throat before explaining.

"I'm sorry; the coupons are limited to one per person."

"What?!" The girl exclaimed, "I need three!"

"My apologies," Clown 1 said, "but these are the rules. Now on to the question-"

"Question?" the girl interrupted again, this time irately. Clown 1 sighed in frustration.

"As part of the rules, I'm to give you a question about Pokemon and if you answer correctly, you get to receive a coupon. Now," Clown 1 said, "which Pokemon is a grass type? A. Turtwig, B. Piplup, or C. Chimchar?" There was silence before the girl responded in a very sweet honey sounding voice.

"How about answer choice D?"

"D?" the clown asked confused at the girl's response.

"Yeah 'D'," the girl said, this time cracking her knuckles, "D as in 'Give me the stupid coupons or you're going to feel pain beyond your puny imagination'." Clown 1 stared at the girl before letting out a high pitch 5 year old girl scream.

"AIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

...

In front of the Poketch company, Clown 2, a thirty year old man, was about to fall asleep before he was awoken by a high pitch scream. _What in the world was that?_ Before Clown 2 could figure out what was going on, a young blond hair boy crashed, literally, into him.

"Ouch!" The blond hair kid groaned, rubbing his head, "Watch where you're going!"

"Watch where I'm going?!" Clown 2 exclaimed, "You crashed into me!" The blond hair kid ignore this statement and brushed off the dirt from his orange and white shirt and noticed the Clown 2's bizarre look.

"Say..." The blond hair recognizing, "you're one of those stupid clowns I need to find to get coupons!"

_Geez what gave that away?_ Clown 2 sighed and lit up a cigarette before looking at the kid. "Okay answer my question and you get a coupon."

"What?! Questions?!" The blond hair kid looked really nervous and started to chew on his fingers.

"Yeah, questions," Clown 2 smirked at the kid's expression, "Scared?"

"No! Just surprise," the kid said, trying to put on a brave face, "And isn't smoking bad?"  
"Kid, I'm asking the questions, not you. So my question is... What type of Pokemon is Piplup?"

"Type?" The kid thought for a moment before saying, "Can I have a hint?" Clown 2 choked on his cigarette.

"Hi-hint?!"

"Yeah, I'm never good with this kind of stuff," the blond kid said grinning stupidly. Clown 2 stood dumbfounded. How stupid are kids these days?

"Okay, what color is Piplup?" Clown 2 asked.

"Errrrr," the kid thought for a long moment, "Can I call a friend?" Clown 2 groaned. This is going to be a LONG day.

...

"Excuse me, but are you one of the clowns that were supposed to give me a coupon?" Lucas asked the clown that stood in front of the TV station in town.

"Yes," Clown 3 said, impatiently. He stared at the 10 year old boy with a strange red flat cap. Clown 3 had seen the kid circling around the entire town before actually noticing him, Clown 3. How hard does it take to see a bright yellow dressed up person with a large red nose in the middle of a town? "You want a coupon?"

"Yeah, three please," the kid said with dazed eyes. He seemed to be depressed for some reason.

"Err, I can only give you one," Clown 3 said. The kid stayed motionless for a moment before turning his sad puppy eyes at Clown 3, making him very uneasy.

"Bu-but," Lucas sniffled, "I need thre-three. I wo-won't be able to e-eat if I don't get three." Clown 3 gaped at the kid, but he looked like he was telling the truth. "Life is so cruel." Before Clown 3 could respond, Lucas started bawling. Crowds of people started to stare at the scene -a ten-year old kid bawling in front of a clown. Apparently, the joke wasn't funny.

"That clown just made that kid cry," a man whispered to a passerby who got curious.

"Don't worry Tommy," a mom said, scooping up her five year old child, "clowns aren't that scary..." The mom gave Clown 3 a disdainful look before rushing off.

Clown 3 heard all of the whispers and murmurs and felt really guilty and annoyed.

"Kid! Stop crying! I'll give you three coupons! Just stop!"

"Really?" Lucas sniffled, "Thank you mister." Clown 3 looked uneasy for a moment. It was against the rule, but oh, well. Being seen with this kid who is crying is way more embarrassing.

...

"Well, that was easy," Dawn grinned. She looked at the three pink coupons with the number 1 on the front. "I hope Damion and Lucas go their tickets as well." Dawn walked over to the Pokemon Center when she noticed a large sign on the side of the Pokemon Center. She gasped as she read the large black words printed across the colorful poster.

_Pokemon Contest in Floaroma Town This Coming Week! Winner gets a Pokemon Contest Ribbon!_

One the poster, there was a large enhanced photo of a forest green ribbon that was similar to the one Dawn received from her mom as a good luck charm. There was also a picture of the Pokemon Contest building behind the ribbon and a map showing the location of the town. Dawn literally almost squealed with joy. Finally! She'll be able to debut in her first contest. She quickly rushed off to find Damion and Lucas, wanting to share the news. Dawn was in an awful good mood. Well, anybody would be if they just smack down a clown.

...

"So if Piplup is blue in color, then that must mean... are you sure it isn't grass type?" Damion asked again.

"NO!" Clown 2 groaned. "How many *ing times do I have to tell you that?!!" Clown 2 already went through 3 cigarettes before Damion managed to figure out that

"Okay, okay," Damion rolled his eyes, "Just checking." Damion thought for a moment before he realized something.

Dawn had a Piplup! So if he, Damion, had a fire type to beat Lucas' Turtwig, which is a grass type, then Piplup has to be...

"Water!" Damion grinned, "That's the right answer right?"

"Thank you all mighty Pokemon beings," Clown 2 muttered before directing his congratulations, "Here's your coupon and get out of my sight kid."

"My name is Damion, not kid," Damion yelled, "Could you at least not call me that?"

"Yeah, whatever," Clown 2 sighed as he handed the coupon to Damion.

"Wait a minute, I need three not one," Damion said slowly, remembering what Dawn had said.

"Tough kiddo," Clown 2 said through the puffs of black smoke, "I'm not going to give you two extra coupons and I'm certainly not going to give you two more questions to answer."

"What?!" Damion yelled, "She's going to kill me if I don't get three!"

"Who?" Clown 2 asked interested, but before he could figure it out, another voice came into play.

"Damion, why do you only have one coupon?" Damion whipped his head around and saw the person he didn't really want to see right then and there.

"Dawn! I thought you were going to meet us at the Pokemon Center?!" Damion said, shocked.

"I got news!" Dawn said excitedly, "but hold on a minute." Dawn stared at the clown and Damion. "Did you get the other coupons?"  
"Er, no," Damion winced as he said it, "this clown won't give it to me."

"Its rules," Clown 2 said impatiently, "So if your girlfriend wants a coupon, you'll need to have her answer my question." Damion gulped in fear at the word 'girlfriend' and stared uneasily at Dawn, whose smile turned into shock then into pure hatred.

"Uhhh, clown sir," Damion said quickly, "You might want to take that back."

"What?" Clown 2 wondered confusingly.

"Did you say '_girlfriend_'?!" Dawn asked in a very, very, VERY dangerous voice. Clown 2 stared at Dawn's angry form before realizing that Damion meant what he said.

"ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

...

"Oh, hello guys," Lucas said as he noticed Dawn's smiley form and Damion horrified look. "Did something happen?" Lucas asked Damion.

"Yeah something..." Damion muttered as he looked at Dawn. He could still picture the deformed looking... what was a... 'clown' after Dawn... "dealt" with him.

"Well, here's my tickets," Lucas said, holding up three pink coupons with the number three on them.

"Yeah, same here," Damion replied, holding up three pink coupons with the number two on them. Two of the tickets appeared to be torn and strangled as if ripping them from a hand. "Don't ask." Damion said when Lucas opened his mouth to speak and pointed to the two mangled looking pink papers.

"Anyway guys," Dawn said, breaking up the boys' conversation, "I got some news! There is a notice I saw that said there is a Pokemon Contest in Floaroma Town! We need to get there quickly so I can finally make my debut."

"That's great," Lucas said, his eyes widen with interest. However, Damion frowned and shook his head.

"Dawn, did you forget," Damion said, "We planned to go to Oreburgh City so I can get my gym badge. I don't want to go to Floaroma Town." Deafening silence sank into the group as Dawn and Damion looked at each other.

_Uh, oh_. Lucas thought as he watched the two trainers. _Looks like lunch will have to wait._

**Author's Notes**

Dawn vs. Damion. Who will win? Place your bets while you still can! lol.

I love showing Dawn's anger. Made me feel a lot better.

Okay, if I didn't thank you for reviewing in a PM, I apologize. Being sick and all, I lose track easily.

...

Anyways, thank you

**Phantom shadow mask**

**Ketchum Kid** (Oh, I forgot to respond to your review last time. Yes, what I meant was your Pokemon dressing up. I'll do it for you if you want, unless you have time now.)

**SynctrainerLucas**

**xoxbeachbabii**

**ShadowsyaoranX-77**

**Lady of DarkFire**

**WolfSummoner93**

**dark5523**

**Pikana**

**KingstonXx**

**Unknown**

**Jarkes**

...

Well thank you for your patience and I look forward to your comments and reviews.

**-JapanDreamer**

PS. Just to spoil some stuff since I'm in a good mood. In the next chapter, hopefully, somebody is going to get a new Pokemon! And heck, I'll even throw in an OC.


	21. Splitting Up

**Disclaimer**: In reality, I don't own Pokemon.

Happy Valentine's Day! I give you all hearts and happiness, but knowing you guys, you want a chapter instead. lol.

Whoot! Another chapter! This is a pretty long one!

So, anyways, there's no OCs in this chapter (sorry I lied before) but I'm putting in all of the coordinator OCs for the Pokemon contest in the next chapter. I bet a lot of you guys are excited! By the way, ignore my spelling and all that. I'm too lazy to check.

Okay, we're back to see who will win the argument. I look forward to your reaction in the end.

Anyways enjoy the chapter!

**Chapter 18:**

"You're saying that we should go to the Oreburgh City instead of Floarama because you want your battle even though you could wait?" Dawn asked in a dangerous tone. Lucas gulped as he turned his head toward Damion. Damion looked a little bit scared but held his ground.

"Don't you know that Floarama City is in the opposite direction?" Damion said angrily, "Going to the contest and back to the gym will take forever. I'm not going to waste time. I want to compete in the Pokemon League, and every second counts."  
Dawn pouted but refused to give up her opportunity. Meanwhile, Lucas looked surprise at Damion.

"The same goes for me," Dawn stated, "I'm not giving up my choice." Damion didn't respond. He knew the contests mean everything to Dawn, but he didn't want to lose his position.

"We'll go to the gym then to the contest," Damion said, trying to compromise, "I'm pretty sure someone can give us a ride to Floarama Town in time."

"What?! No way!" Dawn shook her head, "I need to arrive early to Floarama Town! I need to get ready! Why don't we go to the contest first then the gym?"  
"I want to get ready to," Damion snapped. He was getting irritated at the fact that both of them arguing were getting nowhere. "I want to have gym battle. I'm not going to wait for you."  
"Well," Dawn snapped back, "I'm not going to wait for you to battle. It'll take forever."

"That's fine!" Damion yelled, "But you can't make me go and watch your girly performance."

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah!"

"Umm... Damion how did you know that Floraroma and Orenburgh are in opposite directions? I thought you couldn't read a map." Lucas asked as his head swirled. Lucas kept moving his head back and forth from Damion to Dawn, leaving his head spinning.

"You! Shut up!" Damion and Dawn yelled at Lucas. Lucas immediately fell silent, ready to cry, but he hated the fact that both of them were fighting. Friends shouldn't fight like this.

"How about this," Lucas asked timidly, "Why don't we go separate ways? Dawn will go to her contest and Damion will go to his gym battle. After you guys finish, we can meet somewhere." Dawn and Damion fell silent when they finish listening to Lucas' plan.

"I like the idea," Damion said, breaking the silence, "Besides, it's only a temporary split up. We'll see each other again."

"It'll work," Dawn decided, "I'll get that Pokemon Contest ribbon and then meet you at Oreburgh to see your gym battle."

"What?! No way," Damion grinned, glad they finally compromised, "I'm going to get that gym battle and meet you at Floarama Town where I'll be watching your Pokemon Contest."

"Wanna bet," Dawn grinned.

"Yeah, 1 million dollars," Damion declared, "Let's see who win."

"You're on!" Lucas smiled. Things are more peaceful now. Hopefully, lunch will be served soon.

...

"Thank you so much for participating in our Poketch campaign. Here's the Poketch. You can chose from pink, orange, and blue. We look forward to seeing you again." The man in the plum color suit smiled as he took Lucas', Dawn's, and Damion's coupons before presenting the tray of different Poketch. The merchandises have a large touch screen where one can look at the date, the time, and the map.

"This was a waste of time," Dawn muttered as she strapped on the pink color Poketch onto her wrist. Damion muttered in agreement as he grabbed for the orange one. Lucas stared daze like into the sky. "Lucas!"

"Hmmm?" Lucas looked at Dawn before realizing that he needed to get a Poketch as well, "Oh." He strapped on the blue one to his wrist.

"Honestly, you need to focus more," Dawn sighed, "Speaking of which, have you decided who you're going to follow?"  
"Huh?" Lucas asked confused as the three of them walked north, toward the road out of town. Damion hit Lucas' back, causing him to stumble.

"She means that since the two of us are going separate ways, which path are you taking?"

"Well," Lucas thought, his face turning slightly pink at the idea of him traveling with Dawn without the evil Damion, "I guess... I really want to see a Pokemon Contest."

"Then you'll come with me," Dawn said, "I guess it'll be your first time to see something amazing. You'll be able to appreciate it more than a Pokemon battle."  
"Hey!" Damion yelled, "I'll make you eat those words!" He suddenly grabbed Lucas and pulled him away from Dawn, just far enough so that the both of them were out of ear shot. "Lucas," Damion hissed in Lucas' ear, "If you do anything weird to Dawn, you're going to be hearing a lot from me." Lucas looked confusingly at Damion. What was Damion's definition of 'weird'?

"Ummm... okay?" Lucas said, terrified as to what Damion might do to him. Damion gave Lucas a death glare until Dawn spoke to them.

"Guys, we're here." Damion looked and saw that the road ahead diverged into two different paths. At the fork, there was two arrows pointing to the road, one said Floaroma Town, the other, Oreburgh.

"Well this is it," Damion said as he shuffled his feet, "We're not going to see each other for a while."

"Don't worry about that," Dawn said, "You should worry more about getting that 1 million dollars to pay me." Damion grinned at the small joke.

"Don't you dare think I would lose!" And with that, Damion ran off down the road to where it pointed Oreburgh.

"Hey! No cheating! Come on Lucas!" Dawn hurried down the road that leads to Floaroma with Lucas behind her.

...

"I'm tired. We haven't eaten lunch." Lucas groaned and moaned as Dawn continued to briskly walk down the path.

"Don't worry," Dawn remarked, "I bought sandwiches back in Jublife. We can eat it once we find shade."

"Really?!" Lucas said happily.

"Yeah," Dawn smiled, "In fact, I'll even show you some Pokemon Contest moves."

...

"Sniff... I love you," Lucas smiled as he looked at the foot long turkey sandwich before he swallowed it in one gulp.

"The way you say that creeps me out," Dawn said shuddering.

"Well, I'm always hungry for some reason," Lucas said through his overstuff mouth, "I can't help it." Dawn and Lucas were sitting under a large oak tree that was next to the road. The sun was just over them, leaving a comfortable shade. Dawn had sandwiches strewn everywhere. Knowing, Lucas, she bought extra.

"Anyways, while we're resting, I'm going to practice!" Dawn stretched her legs and hurried out on to the road.

"So," Lucas said after swallowing his fourth sandwich, "How does a Pokemon Contest work?"

"Basically, there are three events in each contest," Dawn said, holding up three fingers, "The first one is Pokemon dress up. In 60 seconds, you have to dress up your Pokemon in a selection of clothes that you have and the more suited it is for your Pokemon, the higher points you get." Lucas nodded to show that he understood.

"The second part is the dance. Each Pokemon will have a chance to be the leader of the group and the others will have to copy the same type of dance the leader is doing. After a while, leaders switch and the same process are repeated. This is basically to show elegance along with coordination." Dawn explained. "The third and final part is the appeal section. This is when you use different Pokemon moves to make an appealing show. The third event is the most crucial one because it determines how well skill the coordinator is with their Pokemon." Lucas tilted his head to the side as if he was confused. Dawn sighed and shook her head.

"I don't understand. What do you mean by Pokemon moves coordinating with appeals?"

"Well, how about I show it to you instead?" Dawn stated. Lucas nodded enthusiastically. "Come on out Piplup!" The blue penguin, chirping happily, popped out of its Pokeball. "Okay, according to my Pokedex," Dawn muttered as she checked Piplup's moves, "All right, here we go! Piplup use Bubble!"

Piplup took a huge breath and sent out a large stream of giant bubbles into the air. The giant spheres moved about lazily, bumping into each other. "Now use Water Spout onto the bubbles!" Piplup opened its mouth again and sprayed the bubbles. The strong force caused tiny popping sounds, the fountain of water still spraying all over the place. A rainbow was formed to finish the act. Lucas was astounded at the appeal. It was very unique yet simple.

However, Piplup couldn't stop the Water Spout attack and soon got larger and stronger. The road was splashed with incredible force and the leaves on the tree were dripping down drops and drops of water.

"Wahhh!" Lucas cried as the water splashed onto him. Dawn flinched at the uncontrolled attack.

"Piplup stop!" The penguin Pokemon closed its mouth and the attack ceased. "Darn!" Dawn sighed, "Water Spout is hard to control especially when it's supposed to be a small splash, and the move was too plain. Looks like its back to square one." Lucas shook his head, droplets of water were sprayed everywhere.

"It wasn't too bad," Lucas reasoned.

"I suppose," Dawn sighed, "But even the slightest mistake can cost big. I need to use a series of moves that'll be easier to control." Piplup puffed its chest proudly, obviously thinking that they'll succeed.

Suddenly there was a scuttle sound in the grass. Piplup turned around toward the noise and saw a small shadow crashing into it. Piplup fell to the ground.

"Piplup!" Dawn cried, rushing toward her Pokemon, "What the?"

"Shinx!" The blue and black cub lion growled. It was in a fighting position and staring menacingly at Piplup. Shinx's fur was wet as if it just survived a storm. It didn't take two people to figure out why it was mad at Piplup.

"Pip! Piplup!" The blue penguin puffed out its chest angrily. It was obviously that being hit to the ground bruised its ego.

"Wait! A Shinx!" Dawn grabbed her Pokedex and read the data on the lion Pokemon, "It's an electric Pokemon! No good Piplup! Water can't beat electric! It's best to retreat!" Piplup ignored its owner's words and charged at the Pokemon. Piplup's pride was bruised and it was definitely not going to back down. Shinx growled and sent out a Spark attack. Piplup jumped into the air to doge the yellow electric attack and sent out a stream of bubbles. "Piplup! Stop!" Lucas jumped up, surprise. He quickly put his hand to his Pokeball, just in case.

The bubbles came crashing down with increased force. Piplup sent out a Peck attack before retreating back.

"Sh... Shinx!" Shinx growled as it got hit and then all of a sudden, it released from its body a massive amount of electricity.

"Ahhhhhh!" Dawn backed away, trying to avoid the blast of energy. Piplup wasn't as lucky and took a direct hit. It fell to the ground, and fainted. "NO! Piplup return!" Dawn sent her Pokemon back into the Pokeball.

Shinx apparently didn't notice that Piplup wasn't there anymore and continued to send out electricity. It was concentrating very hard, even though it looked like it was in pain; sweat was dripping down its body. Dawn screamed again as a jet of electricity shocked her arm.

"Turtwig Tackle!" Lucas cried as he threw his Pokeball. The turtle Pokemon charged at the electric Pokemon and knocked it back, causing it to stop. Shinx got up weakly, sparks still crackling around its fur. Turtwig stood firmly between Shinx and Dawn, whom Lucas pulled away from harm. "Stay far away," Lucas advised Dawn who was obviously in pain.

The little lion, ignoring the pain, charged toward Turwig. "Turtwig! Withdraw!" Lucas yelled. Turtwig immediately hid in its shell, protecting itself from Shinx. The blue and black lion growled and sent out another Spark attack, only to have it deflected by Turtwig's defense. Shinx got really mad and started to Tackle Turtwig even though it was obvious that Turtwig wasn't getting injured.

"Stop Shinx!" Lucas yelled, "You're injured!" Shinx ignored Lucas' comment and sent out another zap of electricity but immediately dropped to the ground. "Shinx!" Lucas quickly ran over to the wild Pokemon and picked it up. It was panting heavily as if it ran a marathon.

Lucas quickly brought it over to where Dawn, who was tending her burnt arm, was. She had her medicine kit out and was wrapping her left arm with white long bandages. Turtwig, who was also concern for the Shinx, followed Lucas as well.

"Ouch! Good thing that attack wasn't too strong... Lucas! What the-" Dawn gasped at the fatally weak looking Shinx.

"I- I don't know what's wrong with it," Lucas sputtered, confused, "I didn't think Piplup's attack would take a huge damage to it."

"Well that's unusual," Dawn said, inspecting the injured Pokemon, "I'm guessing this is a newborn, seeing how it couldn't defend itself after two attacks." Dawn sighed as she continued to think. "I think its best that we get to Floaroma Town's Pokemon Center. Maybe they can do something."  
"Okay," Lucas bobbed his head up and down, "I'll put it into a Pokeball so it'll be easier to carry." Lucas took out an empty Pokeball and sent Shinx into it. The Pokball rolled slightly in his hand, flashing red a couple of times before it finally stopped.

"Good let's go," Dawn said as she got up. She immediately winced and grabbed her injured arm as if it was on fire.

"Are you okay?" Lucas asked concern.

"I'm fine," Dawn gritted her teeth, "The attack was weak, thank goodness, and it's only a small burn mark. Don't worry about me. Let's go." And with that, Lucas, Dawn and Turtwig hurried down the road to their next destination, in hopes of saving a Pokemon.

**Author's Notes**

I'm so evil. lol. Damion has left the group and I know there are a couple of you guys that are going to hate me. Don't worry, he'll be back.

Well, will Lucas and Dawn save Shinx in time? I'm looking forward to write the next chapter.

...

Thank you

**Synctrainer Lucas**

**WolfSummoner93**

**dark5523**

**X-Spark**

**SsX-77**

**Phantom shadow mask**

**Pikana**

**CC411**

**KingstonXx**

**Jarkes**

**renniegirl**

**Ketchum Kid**

**Unknown**

**AkemiYumikov3**

**Lady of DarkFire**

**Aiko**

...

All right! Contest stuff in the next chapter! And maybe a hint of (Cough) Team Galactic...

see ya next time!

**-JapanDreamer**


	22. One Contest, and a Flashback to Go

**Disclaimer: The system I live under requires me to say that I don't own Pokemon.**

Hello and welcome to another chapter! I was going to try and post this up sooner but because of some 'internet' technical difficulties... yeah, so its early, but not as early as I wanted.

Also, I want to celebrate for reaching over** 300 **REVIEWS! YES! Its definitely a new record for me!

Okay, first off for those who are confused as to why I updated early. I was trying to write Rewritten, but I couldn't get the tone right. After a couple of frustration screaming, I decided to work on this to blow off some steam... and I typed a little bit too much in my opinion.

I was planning to make this into two chapter, but then I thought, what the heck, I'll just give my readers a double special this time. I'll still update on a regular schedule too.

I only have one OC mention clearly in this chapter. The rest are here as well, but in the background (aka. no names or huge description yet). Srry. next chapter will have the OCs whose names I didn't mention in this chap.

Anyways, today's OC is **C411's Lindsay**! **Blake Wilson**, **Lady of the DarkFire**, and my, **JapanDreamer**, OC are mentioned but not described fully. Other characters WILL appear, so hang on tight.

Enjoy the extra double feature chapter!

**Chapter 19:**

"Hello, welcome to the Pokemon Center," Nurse Joy said to Lucas and Dawn, who were both panting heavily as if they both had just ran a marathon.

"Please!" Lucas gasped between breaths, "There is something wrong with Shinx! Can you help it?" Nurse Joy took the Pokeball from Lucas' hand and opened it. A large flash of white light popped and shimmered away, revealing the feverish and sick lion.

"Hmmmm," Nurse Joy observed Shinx on the small wheeled bed. "Sinx has been through a lot. I think it'll be fine after some rest, but I'll take it in just in case." She motioned two Chansey, both wearing small Pokemon nurse hats, to take the Pokemon into the back room to recover. "I'll take your other Pokemon to heal as well if you want. You can come back in about an hour to pick up Shinx." Nurse Joy took Lucas' and Dawn's Pokeballs and left to the back of the room.

"Phew," Lucas sighed, "That's a relief." Dawn sighed as well. A lot of hassle was put into this just to get to the Pokemon Center on time. "Dawn, should we have your arm check?"

"Naw," Dawn grinned to show that she wasn't in pain, "I'm totally fine." Lucas looked unconvinced, so Dawn moved her arm to show that she was totally fine. "Come on, don't worry. I want to hurry and sign up for the Pokemon Contest. The sooner the better."

"You seem pretty excited," Lucas noted. Dawn smiled in response. She felt like she ate so much sugar and couldn't stop jumping with excitement.

"This is my first contest," Dawn said, "Of course, I'm excited! Speaking of which... we need to hurry!"

"Wait a minute! W-WE?!" Lucas exclaimed. After all that running, Lucas was planning to nap a bit, but Dawn dragged him out of the Pokemon Center and into the sun shining town. Dawn looked around the place and found the town quite relaxing and beautiful.

Unlike Jubilife City, which was consist of tall buildings, flashy colors, and rushing traffic, Floraroma Town was covered with lush green grass, dotted with flowers that seemed to fill the valley with heavy fragrance. Dawn inhaled the overwhelming but pleasant smells. The town was dotted with small one story houses; each has their own garden filled with fruits and vegetables. The people around here were not fashionably dressed but seemed to be normal folks.

It was a relaxing place that seemed to fit Lucas' personality... which probably explained why he immediately fell asleep.

"ZZzzzzZZ..." Lucas muttered in his sleep. His whole body collapsed on to the pebble road, almost causing Dawn to fall to the ground.

"Hey!" Dawn yelled, shocked at Lucas' ability to sleep, "wake up!" A couple of people around them looked at curiosity and almost laugh when Dawn tried to pull Lucas' limp body up.

"Zzzz... wha?" Lucas opened one sleepy eye before closing it again.

"Geez! How in the world do you fall asleep all of a sudden?!" Dawn groaned at Lucas' blank look. Lucas yawned before he struggled to get back up.

"I'm just tired that's all," Lucas explained, "So much has happened today." Dawn rolled her eyes.

"Come on! Move!" Dawn grabbed Lucas' hand again and continued to drag him to the Pokemon Contest building. Her touch felt light and bubbly and made Lucas' face turn slightly pink. This was probably the first time a girl had held his hand. Most of the time, he was either dragged by the arm or ear. It was very... something...

Suddenly, Lucas noticed something weird happening to his arm. Lucas jerked back his hand away from Dawn, who found the sudden movement alarming.

"Something wrong?" Dawn asked as Lucas inspected his arm.

"No, nothing," Lucas immediately replied laughing nervously, embarrassed at his sudden rude movement, "I thought there was something on my arm." Dawn looked puzzle but continued to walk down the path. Lucas' goofy grin immediately turned into a frown as he looked at his arm again which seemed to be normal again.

_What had just happened?_

...

"Hello, welcome to the Floaroma's Pokemon Contest Center," the young blue hair lady from behind the counter said when Dawn approached, "Are you signing up for the contest that is held in two days?"  
"Yes!" Dawn said excitedly, "This is my first competition." Lucas hung back in the lobby and stared at amazement at the beautiful building. There were many trainers here, grooming their Pokemon or working on tricks to perform like Dawn did.

In the back of the room, there was a 14 year old jade eye boy, with a black headband tied around his dyed yellow hair, had a large vintage t-shirt with a blond hair woman in the front. He was feeding a Jolteon some red Pokeblocks from his Sinnoh backpack while brushing his Pokemon's yellow static like fur.

Through the glass window, Lucas could see outside, in the training area, an eight years old girl with emerald hair tied up in a ponytail was teaching her Ponyta to use Fire Spin and Fire Blast at a target set up. The whole area around the girl was scorched badly and quite a few fire extinguishers were lying around.

Close to the emerald hair girl was a girl with red hair, who looks so oddly familiar to Lucas for some strange reason, who ordered an Attract attack from her Delcatty. The hearts from the move floated slowly into the air like balloons. A couple of passersby stopped to stare at the performance, entranced.

Lucas was spellbound by the different species of Pokemon and performances. Raichu, Scyther, Machop, Granbull, Swinub, Vulpix, and many more. Never before has he seen so many different Pokemon come together at the same place.

"Well, in that case," the lady smiled to Dawn, "I would need your identification card to give you a Contest pass that will allow you to compete in other contests in the future." Dawn handed over her Pokedex and passed it over the counter. The lady took the Pokedex and put it into a small slot. There was a chirping noise before the Pokedex came back out, along with a small laminated card that was the same size as Lucas' I.D. The only difference is that the card was pink with a large dark red contest ribbon as the background. Dawn's face was in the picture with her personal information, and on the top of the card there is the words 'Contest Pass.'

"Thank you so much," Dawn exclaimed as she took the Contest pass along with her Pokedex. "Come on Lucas! Let's go!"

"Already?" Lucas asked, trying to hide his yawn.  
"I need to go shopping," Dawn explained, "This contest requires money to buy stuff. Argh! I should've bought some clothes in Jubilife!"

"Do I have to go?" Lucas whined, "I can't help you when it comes to clothes." Dawn frowned.

"Of course I need you to help me!" Dawn exclaimed, "This contest requires my Pokemon and me to dress up! I need to find an outfit for me first before I can get something for Piplup!"

"But!"  
"You're coming and that's that!" Lucas sighed. Dawn was quite demanding when she got agitated.

...

"Hmmm, what to wear, what to wear," Dawn muttered repeatedly as she looked at the wide variety of clothes in the shop. The problem with these clothes was that most of them were brightly colored and laced with flowers. Too nature like for Dawn's taste. Everybody else in the store was obviously, like Dawn, trying to find the perfect outfit to give the best appearance for the judges. The best ones were going to be sold out and Dawn wanted to look original. Lucas sat in one of the small chairs in the room and started to droop off. "Lucas, help me!" Dawn snapped out of frustration.

"Like how?" Lucas groaned. He wanted to sleep so bad that the only thing that was keeping him awake was Dawn's voice that made it feel like an ice pick was stabbing into his temple.  
"I dunno," Dawn said desperately. She wished she had decided her outfit ahead of time. "Just think of a color that I would look nice in, and I'll figure something out!"

"Uh," Lucas frowned as he tried to picture the many colors in his head, "I... no, wait... umm... I think... you look nice in blue."

"Blue?" Dawn asked surprise.

"Sky color blue," Lucas specified, "It looks nice with your gray eyes. The color represents your smile because your smile seems to make the depressing gray sky turn blue." Dawn blushed at Lucas' explanation.

"Wow, I didn't expect that detail clarification."  
"Well, since you know the color she looks good in, do you know what color I should choose?" A voice asked, laughter ringing from behind. Dawn turned around and saw a fourteen year old girl standing next to them.

The model-looking tan skin girl had amethyst color eyes that sparkled mischievously from behind a rack of clothes. She had long black hair with blond highlights. The girl had on a turquoise top and a black mini skirt that fitted her figure quite nicely. She also had on black boots that went up to her knees. The girl had on green, fingerless gloves and a blue fanny pack that was strapped quite tightly around her waist.

"Uh," Lucas reacted immediately at this bizarre stranger's question, "perhaps pink and purple. They match your eyes and hair. Gives you the kind of fairy princess appearance." The girl grinned at Lucas' suggestion and winked at him.

"I'll take your word for it then." Lucas stared blankly at this girl's fox-like smile before turning to the racks. "By the way, my name is Lindsay. Like you," she nodded to Dawn, "I'm competing in the Pokemon Contest. I decided that my clothes probably wouldn't go well with the theme of this town so I wanted to wear different kind of clothes. Got to look nice for the judge."

"Oh, I see. Well, it's very nice to meet you. I'm Dawn," Dawn said politely, remembering her training back at home, "and this here is Lucas."

"Nice to meet you Lindsay," Lucas said, trying to imitate Dawn's polite tone. Lindsey smiled back, perhaps more warmly to Lucas.

"Dawn, I couldn't help but to over listen, but is this your first contest?" Dawn nodded, a little bit embarrass. "Well, in that case, I guess I should help out. First off, try this." Lindsay threw a large sky blue dress towards Dawn. "I'll find a hat that'll go with it." Lindsay dived into a pile of hats in the middle of the room, leaving Dawn and Lucas utterly confused.

"Ummm," Dawn muttered, not sure what to say.

"Come on," Lindsay yelled, her voice muffled as she continued to dig deeper, "Just try it on. Seriously, it'll look good on you." Dawn shrugged her shoulders and went into the changing room. Lucas' eyes widened as Lindsay continued to dive deeper, throwing hats everywhere, making it look like it was raining free hats.

"AHA! Perfect!" Lindsay pulled out a Sunday white hat with a dark blue ribbon tied to the hat. "Dawn catch!" Lindsay threw the hat like a Frisbee and it landed into the room that Dawn was in.

"Nice throw," Lucas remarked. Lindsay smiled in a shy way.

"Well I had practice." Lindsay quickly rushed off to another clothes rack, taking everything off that was pink and/or purple. "Now to get my clothes." Once again the store was being showered with clothes everywhere. Lucas watched with amazement at the ceiling.

"So," Lindsay said as if to break the silence, "How long have you and Dawn been traveling?"

"Couple of days, why?" Lucas asked, confused.

"Well, I was wondering how you guys met," Lindsay said as calmly as possible.

"We just met," Lucas shrugged, "That's all."

"Oh," Lindsay said and tried a different approach for a conversation, "are you going to the Contest?"

"Yes," Lucas replied, his eyes had a hint of interest and excitement, "I've never seen a Pokemon Contest before."

"Well, you're in luck," Lindsay laughed, "I'll make it the best show you've ever seen."

"Really?" Lucas asked bewildered.

"Yeah, for you I would," Lindsay said in an obvious flirting way. Lucas cocked his head to one side, wondering what Lindsay's words mean exactly.

"Well that's... that's very nice of you," Lucas replied, wondering if that was the right thing to say.

"Umm," Dawn whispered as she opened the door, breaking the conversation, "What do you think?" Lucas turned around and almost gaped with amazement. The dress and hat matched perfectly with Dawn's black hair and seemed to help Dawn's eyes to stand out more. She looked faintly embarrassed as she shifted from one foot to another.

"Err... um... um," Lucas sputtered.

"Looks great!" Lindsay cut in as she inspected Dawn, "you'll need stockings and shoes to go with it but that should be easy! Oh yes," Lindsay grabbed a white ribbon and tied it around Dawn's waist, making a large bow, "there that should do."

"This is so embarrassing," Dawn muttered as she pulled her hat down, to hide her face that seemed to be as red as Lucas'.

"Come on," Lindsay grinned, "You need to look good for the judge. This outfit represents Floaroma Town's beauty right from the start."

"Excuse me," the store clerk interrupted. Lindsay looked around wildly until she spotted the short man.

"Hi there sir," Lindsay said happily, "Dawn would like to buy this dress and hat. Also could you help her find some good shoes?"

The shopkeeper coughed but nodded. "Um, I would be happy to help, but could you do a favor for me?"

"What's that?" Lindsay asked confused.

"Would you please clean up the mess you made?"  
"Mess?" Lindsay asked, wide eye. She looked at the store. Shirts were hanging limply from the racks, pants were strewn around the floor, and dresses were swaying from the small rotating fan on to the top of the ceiling. Customers who were coming in were gaping at the strange bizarre shop, wondering if this was the new meaning of 'reaching for new heights.' "What mess?"

...

"Wow, I never knew one girl could make so much of chaos," Dawn remarked as she held her shopping bags. Inside was her new Pokemon Contest dress and a couple of accessories to go with it. Lucas shrugged his shoulders. Lindsay was still inside the store, trying to clean up the "what mess?" after both of them left. Right now, he didn't feel like talking.

"Say, can I go to sleep now?" Dawn groaned at Lucas' question.

"Are you really that tired?" Lucas nodded and Dawn shook her head. "Fine, get some rest then. I'll go to the other store and see if there is anything for Pip-" Dawn didn't finish her sentence, as a blurry guy crashed into the both of them.

"Watch where you're going punks! You almost ruined my beautiful hair!" The man snapped. The sun was glaring at Dawn's eye, so she couldn't see the man's face clearly. All she saw was the man's bowl cut sleek turquoise hair and a large 'G' yellow symbol on his chest. The guy ran off as if his 'beautiful hair' was on fire.

"Geez, what a rude guy," Dawn snapped as she brushed off the dirt off of her skirt and shopping bag, "It was his fault that we crashed into each other. So much for a friendly-" Dawn faltered her words when she saw Lucas' face.

Lucas' eyes expanded with nothing but fear in the depths of his once dazed eyes. He was breathing heavily and quickly. His whole body was shaking uncontrollably as if he was freezing despite the warm rays on sun shining down on them.

"Lucas... are you okay?" Dawn asked, downright scared. She touched his shoulder, but he didn't react to it. It was as if Lucas was in another dimension. Suddenly, as if his body couldn't take the pain he was in any longer, he fell to the ground, unconscious. "LUCAS!" Dawn screamed. She bent down to feel Lucas' heart rate. It was going out of control. "HELP! Someone help! Lucas, wake up! Wake up!"

...

"YO! Wake up Snorlax!" Lucas groaned and opened one of his eyes. He looked around him and found himself in a dark cell like room. There were no windows and the whole compound was built out of rocks. A small lantern was hanging from the ceiling, leaving large shadows in the room. He struggled to a sitting position on the dirty bed he was on and noticed three people staring at him. All three of them were on a large boulder, in the room, sitting quite at ease.

One was a girl, about 9, with short black hair that went to her chin. She had a long leather like bandana tied around her head and two black Murkrow's feathers sticking out from the back of her hair. Her dark tan skin almost made her impossible to see and her catlike yellow eyes gleamed through the dark. The girl had a wide happy catlike grin on her face, as if she didn't have a care in the world. She wore a white scarf around her neck, and her black sleeveless tank top and short tight black pants suggested that she was a ninja, or something. She had small daggers on the side of her black belt along with two small knives, about the size of a small child's hand, dangling from her ears as earrings. She wore small black boots that went to her ankle. Her upper arms were wrapped with black cloth as well as her knees. Judging by the small long thin bulges underneath the cloths, Lucas was guessing that there were more weapons underneath there. On her shoulder was a Surskit which seemed to glare through the darkness.

Next to the ninja looking girl was a teenage boy, 17, with long blond hair that seemed to be layered. It went down to his neck. His ears were pierced with small diamond looking stubs. The boy's black eyes looked calm and relaxing as if he was calculating your every move and was always one step ahead of you. He had on a chain necklace attached to a fancy looking sword shape resting on his chest. He was wearing an unbuttoned white short sleeve jacket with blue stripes on the sleeves. Underneath his jacket, the teenager had on a white shirt and blue waterproof pants that matches the color of the stripes on his shirt. He had on worn out black sneakers with dirty white laces. On the side of his left arm, Lucas could see a long thick jagged white scar that went seemed as though someone tried to slice the guy's arm vertically down. Next to him was a Scizor that sat sideways away from Lucas. The red Pokemon's eyes were closed as if it was meditating, ignoring its surroundings.

Behind the two people was a large shadow that Lucas couldn't quite depict, although he could tell that it was a girl because he could see long hair moving to and fro. In the shadow, a Sneasel could be seen, staring intensely at Lucas.

"About time!" the ninja girl grinned, "man, you snore and talk a lot in your sleep!" She laughed at Lucas' dazed expression.

"Please Yuma," the teenager boy said, sighing, "Don't treat our guest so rudely. And don't talk so loudly." He rubbed his head as if Yuma's voice was giving him a migraine. The girl in the shadow nodded in agreement but didn't say anything. Lucas stared wide eye at the people.

"Okay, fine," Yuma frowned, sticking out her tongue, "I just wanted to liven things up a bit."

"Who are you-" Lucas winced as a sharp pain slashed his stomach. He involuntarily clutched his stomach and noticed that his chest was bandaged up.

"You gotten beaten up a lot," Yuma explained as she watched Lucas, "I'm surprise you managed to stay alive after all that."

Lucas suddenly remembered what had happened to him the last time he was fully conscious. He felt around his stomach, arms and neck and noticed that all of the places where his wounds were are now wrapped up and bandaged. He touched his face and felt a bandaged on the cheek where the knife slashed him.

"You've been through a lot," the teenage boy remarked, "We did the best we could to help, but with the limited supplies we have..." The boy waved his hand as if he was doing a disappearing trick with the air. "Anyways, what matters now is that you're safe."

"So, who are you guys?" Lucas asked again.

"Ah, sorry," the teenage boy apologized, "I forgot to introduce us. This here is Yuma as you already know." He pointed to the tan ninja girl next to him.

"Please to meet ya!" the girl smile, "Call me 'Yummy'! It's my secret code name." The teenager rolled his eyes with annoyance but continued.

"And I'm Justin," the teenager boy pointed to himself, "what's yours?"

"I'm Lucas. Lucas Diamond," Lucas replied, a little confused at the fact why Justin didn't introduce the girl behind him.

"You know your last name?" Yuma said surprise, but not in a questioning way, "Wow! Most of us here don't even remember our first." Lucas shrugged.

"I remember reading it off of my orphanage profile," Lucas muttered, remembering that day when he snuck in the office, "so, um who's that behind you?" Justin and Yuma looked behind him for a moment as if he didn't know there was someone behind him. Yuma's grin immediately melted away and fell silent immediately.

"Oh, um," Justin looked nervously at the girl, "She is..." The girl, who ignored the awkward looks from her companions, jumped off the boulder and landed in front of Lucas where he could see her better.

The girl's long white hair swayed to and fro as if there was wind in the room. She wore black spaghetti strap shirt and blue jeans that went down to her knees. She was the same age as Lucas, only shorter. Her pale skin seemed to glow faintly under the light in the dark room. Purple cloth was wrapped around at the arch of her bare feet. On her arms and legs were many cuts and bruises as if each had a story to tell about the things she suffered in her past. Her eyes bore straight onto Lucas'. Her eyes were milky color and large thick white scratch marks were all around her eyes as if someone took a chunk out of her skin.

She was blind.

"My name is Assassin."

**Author's Notes**

Immense flasback... or is it flashfront since its the future? LOL. Seven pages. SEVEN! Now, you guys can't complain about me writing too little.

Personally, I thought this chapter suck. Its like cramming everything into one tiny suitcase. Very difficult for me since I wanted to write more (like ten pages. lol).

Anyways, I forgot to say something. **Lady of DarkFire** and **C411**, PLEASE have you Pokemon Contest information (which Pokemon will dress up, dance, and appeal. How the Pokemon will show off and etc.) ASAP. I'll PM everyone else whom I have forgot who has turn in a coordinator OC but did not turn in info on the Contest as well. (now I sound like a teacher... lol.)

Oh, yes. Another thing. HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I want to add Platinum stuff in this story, but I DON'T HAVE THE GAME! I want to add Looker (stupid name) and Pluto and put Cynthia in more, but I need to know exactly what their role is in the game. So, I'm thinking the if there is someone out there who has the game and is willing to help. PLEASE! The chapter I'm on right now needs these characters! (I bet Jeffery's going to be really happy with Cynthia. lol.)

Anyways, now to thank my reviewers.

...

thank you

**SsX-77**

**dark5523**

**SynctrainerLucas**

**xoxbb**

**Pikana**

**Jarkes**

**X-Spark**

**KingstonXx**

**Phantom shadow mask**

**Unknown**

**WildCroconaw**

for reviewing.

...

All right! The **Author's Notes **is longer than usual and I apologize. I hope you enjoy the chapter and I look forward from hearing you.

**-JapanDreamer**

PS. My 1st anniversary on fanfiction is coming soon. Check out on that day cuz I'm most likely will update.


	23. Windnapping! Send Help Drifloon!

**Disclaimer: Do you own Pokemon? (Y/N) My answer is the same as yours.**

Okay, news flash! I finish Rewritten, so instead of updating once every three weeks... I'm going to update once every TWO WEEKS! (Note: this is when you start screaming with happiness and dance around like crazy... if you want...)

Well, here I am, promising to update on a specific day I already planned but then I was thinking, why don't I write a bit about Galactic? I mean they haven't really gotten much of the spotlight, unless you count the prologue.

Anyways, I'm holding off the contest until I get some sort of reply from my reviewers who gave me an OC, but haven't replied yet.

So I'm updating because I feel like it, so there.

**Chapter 20:**

"Well, it seems like your safety precautions sucks beyond measures. I suggest next time you actually get real security guards that can actually do their job if they want to stay alive," the woman said as she stared down at the professor in front of her. The professor was tied up in thick ropes around his whole body. His broken glasses were dangling dangerously as if it was about to fall of the bridge of his nose, which was dripping drops of red liquid onto the floor. There were several bloody cuts and bruises on his face and neck.

The man responded by spitting out blood as more came trickling down from the side of his mouth. He looked up at the bizarre woman towering over him. Her red blood shot eyes seemed to grin happily at the sight of the mess he was in. However, her outfit seemed to be the most bizarre thing, the professor ever saw. Her strange black and white skirt with long white boots seemed to have come from another planet or galaxy. Her short hair burned bright red under the light. She was obviously the leader of this kidnapping, seeing how she single handily took out three policemen who were guarding outside.

"You... what you want?" Professor Keith asked, wishing he could wipe the blood taste out of his mouth. He looked around his office and saw to his horror; more people like this woman, only with turquoise bowl cut hairstyle, were wrecking the place, opening drawers, taking out paper, and causing a huge mess. Behind Keith were his three assistants, all tied up like him and very horrified to see their boss in such a state. They would've spoken up if their mouth wasn't taped up.

_At least they were alive, there is still hope,_ Keith kept telling himself. He knew in the front of the building, he would probably find the security guards in a worsen state. The woman looked around the small building, listening to the hum coming from the generators, before responding.

"A lot of things," the woman beamed, mischief in her eyes, "love, happiness, and of course, world peace." Keith almost snorted with disbelief at the woman's words. "But from you, I need to borrow this building for about twenty hours." The woman waved her hands lazily at the place. Keith stared at the woman with disbelief.

"Why would you-" Keith spat out more blood before continuing, "- need this power plant?" The woman shook her head as if Keith asked the wrong question.

"Correction. I need the products that this plant produces. Not the building itself." The woman turned to her two helpers and pointed to them. "Okay you two guys, I want you to start with the generator." The woman took out a Pokeball and released a large robotic looking magnet out. "Magnezone will help out." The Pokemon followed the two Grunts out of the room.

"You're after the electricity!" Keith gasped in surprise. The leader giggled at Keith's sudden realization.

"No wonder you're a professor. With your IQ, you'll be able to solve any problems," she teased to the disbelief Keith, "And yes, like I said, we're after the products that these plant makes. And since you can make limitless amount..." She didn't finish her statement. She didn't need to.

Suddenly, a loud crash could be heard somewhere. The woman immediately frown and turned her head immediately to the noise; her hand was already to the belt where her Pokeballs were attached. Her eyes were suddenly fixed on a cup that was tipped over on the table it was on, coffee dripping to the ground. Noticing in the small space between the table and wall, there was a small round shape shadow moving. Without hesitation, the woman hurled out her Pokeball.

"Purugly! Fake Out!" The immensely fat purple cat with long whiskers immediately attacked the small shadow. Keith immediately flinched as the sound of swift blade sounds filled the air. However, much to Purugly as well as its trainer surprise, it didn't do any apparent damage.

Slowly, the shadow came into the light, revealing to be a purple round balloon shape Pokemon that was floating in the air. It had a small white cloud on its head, and a yellow 'X' mark as its mouth. Dangling down from its black string like arms were two yellow upside down shape hearts that were actually its hands. In one of them was a small handkerchief.

"A- a Drifloon?!" Keith gasped. The little balloon Pokemon immediately rushed to the professor, trying to mop up the blood from the professor's mouth with the white handkerchief. "Stop it!" Keith sputtered, trying to push the Pokemon away, "Get out of here!" The commander stared in disbelief at this act and immediately started laughing.

"This little Pokemon! I should've known there would be many Drifloon here with all the wind and what not. Normal attacks don't work on this ghost Pokemon." The woman continued to snort with laughter for a moment before she calmed herself down. "That was brave of you little Pokemon, but I'm afraid I'll have to eliminate you now." Keith stared wide eye at the leader's now purely unexpressive face. There was killing intent in her voice that was not there before.

"RUN DRIFLOON!" The balloon Pokemon didn't have time to react before Purugly used with a Faint Attack. The little ghost type suffered immensely from the dark type attack and staggered to the wall. Without the time to guard, the woman summoned a Toxic attack, followed by a Torment. Weak, poisoned, and unable to fight back, the little Drifloon limped to the floor, panting heavily.

Keith stared at horror at the little Pokemon as it tried to run. This was not supposed to happen. Why would this little wild Pokemon defend him? Or even try to save him? Keith couldn't let Drifloon die, and before the fat Pokemon cat could deliver the final blow, he jumped and crushed Purugly under him. The large cat growled and narrowed its large yellow cat eyes as it struggled. The leader stood shock for a moment before regaining herself.

"Grunts! Get this professor off of my Pokemon!" Keith groaned as he felt the pain shooting out of his chest. The little Drifloon looked scared at the blood coming from the professor's mouth and immediately grabbed another white handkerchief to wipe away the red liquid. Keith felt the anger rising within him. This Pokemon would not leave him alone!

"Fly away you stupid Pokemon!" Keith snapped. Drifloon flinched at Keith's harsh words and tears started to flow from its eyes. Keith immediately felt sorry and then said more softly, "Please... please fly away... Send help..." The next thing that happened, Keith felt two pairs of arms grabbing his shoulder and flinging him across the room.

"Destroy that Pokemon Purugly!" Before the Purugly could attack, Drifloon immediately... disappeared?

Purugly sniffed the ground in confusion. Drifloon was still in the room, but where?

"Where the hell is that Pokemon?!" The woman screamed, "Search the place! It's probably invisible!" The grunts sent out their Zubat, using their supersonic attack to locate the ghost Pokemon. Keith groaned and immediately felt a sharp pain on his back as the commander slammed her boot onto his back.

"You're in a whole lot of trouble doctor," the woman hissed.

"Commander!" One of the grunts cried, pointing to a miniature shape Drifloon, floating out of the building. The red hair woman stared surprised before she smacked her head. Of course! Drifloon's Minimize would obviously make it easier to escape.

"You!" She pointed to one of the grunts, "I want you to go after it. Don't let it escape to town!"

"Yes boss!" The grunt cried before he ran out the door, tripping over the overturn desks along the way.

"Tch, stupid, this ruined my whole plan," the commander growled. She was in a really, really bad mood. If the people find out about this place, then the whole brilliance of her idea is destroyed, and less free time for her.

"Co-commander Mars," the other grunt said, fearfully. Keith's ears pricked at the name. He better remember if he ever gets out alive.

"You go back to work," Mars snapped to the other grunt, "I'm going to make sure this professor never talks again." Keith shuddered as he felt the red eyes stared at him again.

They needed help... and fast.

**Author's Notes**

Well, I seem to enjoy doing cliffhanging too much...

And my fav. commander is here! Yay! Go Mars! I didn't know how to describe her personality, so I concluded a fun, loving, blood killer should be the perfect personality for Mars. ^.^

All right! Now to thank my reviewers.

...

Thank you

**SynctrainerLucas**

**X-Spark**

**KingstonXx**

**Pikana**

**WolfSummoner93**

**Anon**

**Jarkes**

**Ketchum Kid**

**SsX-77**

**ContestCutie411**

**Phantom shadow mask**

**dark5523**

**KittyLover4686**

**Unknown**

...

Thanks for reviewing. Its nice to get replies on how enjoyable the story is.

Next chapter is going to be the last chapter before the contest. I'm going to be busy next week but the week after that, I have a huge break so PLEASE wait patiently until then.

Please review and I'll see you in the next chapter.

**-JapanDreamer**


	24. What Flavor of Icecream do You Like?

**Disclaimer: I don't own Pokemon**

Whoot! Update!

First off, I would like to apologize for those who were confused with the last chapter. That WAS in present day. I might switch the order of the chapter with this one just to clear up confusion...

Anyways, now that the holidays started for me, I'm going to update larger chapters. I can't guarantee quick updates though.

Anyways, enjoy! I added someone new though not an OC. Can you guess who?

**Chapter 20:**

Lucas woke up with a start and found himself on a small bed. Looking at the white ceiling for a moment, he looked around and saw that he was in a small simple white bedroom. The sun was shining through the small window, revealing swirling dust in the light. Lucas moved up under his bed sheet and heard murmuring next to him. He turned around and saw Dawn, fast asleep next to him. She was muttering in her sleep, her head, on her crossed arms, on the bed. Lucas tried to be as quiet as possible but the rustling sheets and movements, caused Dawn to wake up.

"Lucas," Dawn exclaimed, trying to stifle a yawn. She stretched her arms and rubbed her tired eyes. "Are you okay?"  
"Yeah," Lucas said slowly, trying to figure out what was going on, "What time is it?"

"Late morning I think," Dawn responded immediately, "You've been unconscious for a while. Fell asleep." Lucas struggled to think as to why he was here, but all he could come up with is a huge blank in his mind.

"Where am I?" Dawn looked anxiously at Lucas' face, trying to determine whether or not Lucas was really fine or not, before talking.  
"You collapsed yesterday, remember?" Dawn explained, looking quizzically at Lucas. "I had to get someone to help you to the doctor. I was really scared. You were shaking and then fell all of sudden." As if a huge wave came crashing down on him, memories of yesterday came swirling back into Lucas' mind. He shivered in fear for a moment as he recalled the horror. Dawn didn't notice this movement and continued her explanation. "Luckily, it was nothing serious. The doctor said it was probably due to fatigue. However, he wanted you to stay for the night just in case."

Dawn bit her lips as she looked at Lucas' dazed face. He seemed to be daydreaming again. Finally, Dawn couldn't stand the silence and then blurted. "Lucas, I'm sorry."

"Huh? For what?" Lucas asked confused.

"You keep telling me that you were tired but... I kept pushing you... I'm really sorry. If I just let you go back to the Pokemon Center and sleep..." Dawn tried to hold back her tears that were welling up in her eyes. Lucas looked wide eyed at the heavy drops of salt water came crashing down the bed.

"Dawn, don't cry!" Lucas said immediately, "It doesn't suit you. You look better when you smile." Dawn giggled through her sobs. She wiped them away and took several huge breaths.

"I'm sorry," Dawn said, composing herself, "Anyways, the doctor said that you can leave as soon as you want. I'm going to town to buy Piplup some costumes for the contest. I wanted to wait until you woke up before I left, but... it looked like I fell asleep."

"Oh," Lucas nodded, "Do you want me to go along?"

"No," Dawn shook her head as she grabbed her bag, "I'm fine on my own. Anyways, just walk around town for while. I'll meet you at the Pokemon Center later. Your Pokemon are on the table next to you. I think its best you let them out. They were getting pretty worried." She pointed to the spot and Lucas looked over to the side table and noticed to his surprise, three Pokeballs.

"Where did the third one come from?" Lucas asked surprised. Dawn looked at him strangely.

"Don't you remember that Shinx? The one we took to the Pokemon Center?" Lucas suddenly recalled the little blue and black lion that was injured.

"But Shinx is not mine," Lucas pointed out. Dawn shrugged as she opened the door.

"You caught it, so legally, it's yours." Dawn closed the door behind her, leaving a completely surprise and dumbfounded Lucas. He took the three Pokeballs from the side table and opened them to release three flashes of lights.

"Turtwig!" The little green turtle cried.

"Muchlax!" The long blue pointed ear Muclax yawned. The two Pokemon jumped onto the bed and immediately hugged Lucas. Both of them were teary eyes and looked completely relieved.

"Guys!" Lucas gasped laughing as Turwig licked his face and Muchlax, with its dull blank eyes, stared at Lucas with a foolish looking grin. After a couple of hugs and pat on the head, Lucas noticed the little Shinx, standing in a fighting position. It stared suspiciously at the trainer and his two Pokemon and growled with anger. It obviously didn't trust Lucas. Plus to Shinx, Lucas looked like an idiot.

"Hello," Lucas smiled. The lion glared at the dazed, idiot boy. Lucas took his hand and brought it close to Shinx as a greeting. "Hello, my name is-"

Chomp! Shinx crunched its jaw on Lucas' hand when it got too close to it. Lucas stood motionless for a moment, his smile still plastered on his face. It took about four minutes before the pain finally sink in.

".... Ouch..." Lucas whimpered.

...

A couple of minutes later, Lucas left the small doctor office, this time with bandages wrapped around his hand. It took the doctor pliers to pry off Shinx's jaw off of Lucas' hand. And it refused to apologize, let alone listen to Lucas. In the end, Lucas returned Shinx back into its Pokeball. Perhaps it's better to release it into the wild later, but first...

"Foodddddd," Lucas sighed as he sniffed the fresh dewy air. Last time Lucas ate was lunch yesterday, so he was definitely hungrier than before. He suddenly spotted a ice cream truck and hurried over. He stared at the different flavors that were listed on the side of the truck. Strawberry, chocolate, banana chocolate, vanilla, cookies and cream, and many more. He rumaged through his pockets until he realized that he forgot that he had no money. Feeling depressed, Lucas decided to stare at the pictures as if he was expecting the food to pop out. Lucas was so mesmerized at the list of ice cream that he almost jumped in surprise when he heard a voice next to him.

"Hmmmm, what to pick, what to pick," the young woman muttered. She had long, slightly wavy blond hair that almost touched the ground, part of the bang covered her left eye.

The woman, around her late twenties, had two black teardrop shape hairclips on the side of her hair. She had on a black coat with fur on the cuffs, collar and bottom that was buttoned once. Underneath, she was wearing a black low cut spaghetti strap shirt and long black dress pants. She also had on black high heels. Her gray eyes were filled with confusion as she looked at the list of ice cream. She sighed after struggling to decide.

"Excuse me is there something wrong?" Lucas asked the woman. She turned her eyes upon him and immediately Lucas felt queasy. He's starting to have a feeling that he seen this woman before... but where?

"I'm having trouble choosing ice cream," the lady sighed, "I've been here for almost an hour, but I'm having such a hard time."

"What flavors do you like?" Lucas asked.

"All of them..." the woman sighed again, clearly in a dilemma. Lucas understood how much trouble the woman was in. It is always a hassle to choose with so many varieties. Lucas thought for a moment before solving the solution.

"How about banana chocolate with strawberry and peach ice cream along with a triple fudge chocolate brownie as a topping?" Lucas suggested. The woman thought for a moment before grinning.

"I like that combo. Haven't tried that one for a while. I'll get that. Sir!" Cynthia turned her attention to the owner of the truck, who has fallen asleep for quite a while, "One banana chocolate with strawberry and peach ice cream please! Along with triple fudge brownie as the topping." The woman happily took the ice cream cone and licked the large mountain filling of ice cream. Lucas felt his stomach rumble but tried to ignore it as he stared at the woman eating.

"You saved me. Usually, I would've stayed there for hours before finally choosing," the woman grinned, "My name is Cynthia. What's yours kid?"

"Lucas," Lucas bowed politely, "I'm glad to be of assistance Miss Cynthia." Cynthia rolled her eyes and laughed, not as rudeness though.

"Please, no need to be so formal," Cynthia waved her hand before licking the ice cream cone to prevent the melting ice cream from dripping, "Mmmmm. Anyways, just call me Cynthia."

"Oh... okay," Lucas said, uneasily, "So, are you a trainer or coordinator?" Cynthia looked strangely at Lucas before replying.

"Sort of a trainer."

"Oh, are you training for the Pokemon League as well?" Cynthia laughed again.

"No, of course not! Why would I need to be in the Pokemon League when I-" Cynthia paused for a moment before shaking her head, "I'm not interested basically. I'm just traveling around. I came here to do a favor from a friend."

"Oh, I see," Lucas said, "So are you staying long?"

"No, I need to go somewhere soon," Cynthia shrugged. There were a couple of minutes of silence before Cynthia spoke up again. "Well it was nice meeting you Lucas. I hope I'll see you again."

"Bye Miss Cynthia." With that Lucas ran off. Cynthia didn't even have time to remind Lucas again not to call her 'Miss Cynthia'. She sighed as she walked off, finishing up the ice cream. She wondered who that kid was, not knowing who she was. With so many posters and announcements about her arrival, Cynthia was a little bit surprise at the boy's unawareness.

Strange kid. But then again, with everything going on... maybe there's more to it.

**Author's Notes**

Yay! One of my fav characters from the game. (smile)

Okay, contest next chapter. I hope...IT WILL BE LONG!. That I can promise. I'll make sure I can get at least seven pages.

All the coordinators, I announced will show up for sure.

Oh, by the way, does anybody want me to write about Damion's journey to Oreghburgh City? If I do, the story will be longer but makes more sense. Anyways, just let me know and i'll decide from there.

All right! now to thank my reviewers.

...

Thank you

**xoxbb**

**Ketchum Kid**

**Pikana**

**X-Spark**

**Lady of DarkFire**

**Kingston Xx (thanks for the OC, and yes, I would like to have the other OC you mentioned.)  
**

**SynctrainerLucas**

**Jarkes**

**phantom shadow mask**

**renniegirl**

for reviewing

...

Thank you all for reviewing and I'll see you next week! (hopefully)

Please review!

**-JapanDreamer**

PS. Someone's going to capture a new Pokemon! Stay tune!


	25. Same Eyes

**Disclaimer: Own Pokemon. Now that's a laugh.**

Well, like I promise a new chapter that HAS the Contest in it. I almost cried from writing this nonstop for so long...

Anyways, enjoy the chapter.

**Chapter 22:**

"Shopping, shopping," Dawn sing as she flitted around the store that specifically sold Pokemon clothing. It was one of the largest buildings in the town and also the fanciest. It looked like a cross between a salon and a clothing area.

There was one place on one half of the store where trainers could place there Pokemon in little barber shop looking chairs that were in front of giant mirrors. Trying out different products they bought or chosen, the trainers could practice dressing up their Pokemon, while timing themselves. In the center, there were varieties of clothing, ranging from small to large, piled up and it was basically first come, first serve ordeal. Lined up along the wall were shelves of small accessories such as feathers, cotton balls, crowns, etc. On the other side of the room were tall swiveling stools for Pokemon sit down on while they wait for their trainer to finish buying.

It was there Piplup was sitting quite impatiently, spinning around in its stool till it was quite dizzy. Nevertheless, it stood quite tall, with its beak high in the air. Piplup wanted to show off its 'superiority' compare to the other Pokemon, who looked at him with disdain.

"Piplup! I got it!' Dawn waved, showing the outfit she had chosen. Piplup chirped happily but waited and didn't budge until Dawn was right next to him before allowing her to pick him up. "Seriously, can't you walk over? It's a bit of a hassle." She picked Piplup up and placed him in one of the small chairs in front of the mirror.

Piplup chirped happily as Dawn started to apply the accessories and makeup. Finally, it was truly being treated as it deserved - a superior leader.

CRASH! Dawn, who was about to put on the necklace on Piplup, jumped up in surprise. There were more heavy sounding crashes and a couple of loud screaming. Piplup turned around, furious at the disruption when a large hand pressed against its face, pushing off and causing Piplup to fall to the ground.

"Pip! Piplup!" Piplup squawked in anger. It looked around and saw that on top of one of the shelves stood the perpetrator.

"Aipom!" The little purple monkey grinned. It was waving its tail which had a little paw like hand at the end and making a very rude gesture with it. That sign was enough to tick Piplup off.

"PIPLUP!" A shot of Bubble attack crashed on to the shelf Aipom was on. Luckily for Aipom, it managed to jump out of the way and doge the attack. Unfortunately for Aipom, the shelf collapsed from impact, sending thousands of merchandises to the ground, along with the little purple Pokemon. It had a tiara on its head, a scarf on its tail and blue sprinkle on its fur.

Dawn groaned at the mess. She was definitely going to be paying more than she should. "PIPLUP! STOP!"

"GRAB THAT MONKEY!" the store owner yelled and all of the employees ran to the monkey. Aipom giggled as it jumped out of the way, climbing up the shelves, using its tail as a way to move up. Piplup rushed passed the employees, pecking each shelves until they tipped over like dominoes. Aipom kept jumping on one shelf after another. Together, the two Pokemon caused more chaos.

"GRAB THAT PENGUIN!" the store owner added, so now the employees were split into two groups- one to catch the wild Aipom and one (along with Dawn) to catch Piplup.

"Piplup Return!" Dawn screamed, trying to return her Pokemon. But the little Piplup was evasive of the attacks.

"That darn Aipom!" one of the employees cried. It always sneak in here from that stupid honey tree!"

"Honey tree?!" Dawn asked surprise.

"Yeah," the girl sniffed as she jumped over a pile of clothes, "It lives there. It Aipom's favorite food is honey." Something clicked in Dawn's head. Aipom was about to jump down onto the window sill and out when a large handful of yellow substance slapped onto the wall next to it. Surprised, Aipom inspected it and to its surprise the substance smelled like... like... honey! Aipom, feeling greedy, stayed put and licked the sweet viscous liquid. It was so absorbed with eating that it didn't notice Dawn right behind it.

"Pokeball go!" Before Aipom could react to what was going on, it was sucked it in a bright red light into the Pokeball. It rolled slightly, flashing red repeatedly before finally the ding sounded and it was over. "Phew, that's a relief," Dawn sighed as she picked up the Pokeball. Good thing she bought honey from that guy next to the forest.

Piplup, furious that it didn't get a chance to fight, tried to peck the Pokeball.

"Stop it!" Dawn ordered. Piplup frowned like a child who candy has been stolen, but nevertheless, halted. It pouted a while, refusing to look at Dawn. "Don't cause more destruction."

Dawn sighed as she looked at the ruin store. Either she was going to be praised for stopping the perpetrator, or she was going to be taken full responsibility for what it has done.

...

"Hi Dawn!" Lucas said excitedly as Dawn walked into the Pokemon Center. He had waited for almost three hours and hoped that Dawn had bought food. Dawn, as though reading his mind, hold up her grocery bag, filled with snacks.

"Honestly, I'm starting to believe that you're only here for the food."

"Well, sort of," Lucas admitted as he took a bite of his hamburger, "I didn't have money, so I couldn't eat." Dawn groaned.

"I'll give you some money later," Dawn promised.

"Muhkay," Lucas said through a stuffed mouth before he swallowed his food.

"Anyways, I got to get ready for the contest," Dawn said as she walked off, "Got to train my new Pokemon." That last sentence had the effect she wanted from Lucas.

"New?" Lucas asked amazed, "What kind of Pokemon?" He acted as a little kid waiting impatiently for his birthday presents.

"Oh, you'll see tomorrow," Dawn said slyly, as Lucas face dropped in disappointment.

"You're no fun," Lucas mumbled.

"That's your opinion." Dawn smirked as she left the Pokemon Contest. Lucas sighed. Guess he'll try to train Shinx... though its probably safe to bring gloves.

...

"Piplup Bubble!" Piplup shot a stream of bubbles into the air. "Now use Peck!" Piplup's beak glowed bright white and immediately started to pop all of the bubbles it created. The small droplets of water created tiny rainbows that flashed in the air.

Dawn surveyed her appeal. It wasn't too bad, but it definitely won't stand out unless she added more spark to it. Unfortunately, Piplup doesn't really know anymore moves that can do that. Water Sport was still hard for it to control. I'll try Aipom then...

"Aipom use Sand Attack follow by Swift!" Aipom, clearly, trying to show off, threw a handful of sand into the air before sending yellow stars toward it. The stars crashed upon impact with the sand, but continued to move upward. Dawn gasped at the final part of the appeal. This was perfect! It needed work but it surely can bring in points. Piplup frowned at the attention Aipom was getting as it jumped up and down, clearly happy at succeeding.

"All right, I figured out how we're going to do this. Aipom will do the appeal part, and Piplup, you'll be in charge of the first two parts of the contest. I'm going to count on you to do your very best." Piplup puffed its chest in importance.

However, Dawn was still concern. The contest was tomorrow and there was no time to fool around.

"Okay, let's try this again."

...

Dawn sighed as she walked back into the Pokemon Center. After a long day of work, she was exhausted. The practice wasn't too bad. Dawn hope that it was good enough. She was about to turn in bed when she noticed Lucas coming in the Pokemon Center as well... with a Shinx biting his head.

"Lucas!" Dawn gasped, "What happened to you?"

"Ha...ha..." Lucas grinned weakly, "Shinx hates me." He pointed to his head and Shinx growled as if to prove it.

"Don't say that," Dawn shockingly said as she looked at the baby Shinx, clenching Lucas' hair as if it was going to rip it out. "Get it off!"

"It's too hard," Lucas groaned, wanting to go to bed, but Dawn grabbed Shinx and pulled hard to let it go. Shinx dropped to the ground, with a couple of black tufts of hair in its mouth. "Owwwww... Shinx return..." Lucas sighed as he looked at Shinx's Pokeball. "I think it hates me..."

"Don't say that," Dawn said, though she felt doubtful as well, "Shinx is just... well... uncomfortable. That's all." Dawn couldn't help but yawn. She was exhausted. "I'm going to turn in. Shinx will trust you soon." She was about to walk off, until Lucas spoke up.

"Oh Dawn."

"Yeah?"  
"Good luck in the Contest tomorrow."

"Thanks," Dawn grinned, "I think I'll need it." She walked off and Lucas couldn't help but feel a surge of pride within him.

...

"Hello everyone! Welcome to the Floaroma City's Pokemon Contest. I'm your host, Marian!" The lady's short brown curly hair had a pink headband on top. She had on a yellow collared sleeveless long dress like jacket. It looked a bit like a raincoat. She had on a mini pink skirt and brown hiking boots. She was holding a microphone to her mouth. She waited for a moment, listening to the loud applause.

The Contest area was enormous. Huge amounts of chairs were lined up neatly in horizontal rows, each filled with excited audience members. On the oval wooden stage, there were big cameras and lights that shined the area. The cameras were all turned to Marian, magnifying her face onto the large screen just above the stage. On the side of the stage, there were three judge podiums for the three judges to sit in. They will determine the points and who will go on to the next round.

"For this Contest, the winner will receive a beautiful Floaroma Contest ribbon!" Marian held up a forest green ribbon up like the one on the poster Dawn saw.

"Wow it's so beautiful," Dawn sighed, "it looks better in real life." Lucas looked confusingly up at the ribbon on the large television screen in the waiting room where all the coordinators were staying. To him, Lucas just thought it was just green cloth tied neatly to make it look pretty, but he didn't say anything. He was more interested in looking at Dawn and her beautiful sky blue dress.

"All right that ribbon is mine!" Dawn looked around and saw a jade eyed fourteen year old blond teenager looking at the screen as well, a wild excitement in his eyes. "Don't expect me to let you win it," the boy noted to Dawn, winking. Lucas noticed that this guy was wearing a white uniform that look like it came from the navy along with white pants and black boots. Two contest ribbons were pinned on the left side of his white navy looking jacket. Lucas looked wonderingly at the ribbons, it was obvious that this guy was no rookie.

"Dream on blond boy, that ribbon is mine!" Lucas turned around and saw that it was an eight year old with emerald hair girl and matching color eyes who said this. She had on a long green dress with a purple ribbon tied around her waist. Her pigtails were looped into circles and tied neatly with the same color ribbon. "Don't expect to win this contest Jeffery."

"Whatever Kenna," Jeffery shrugged his shoulder, grinning in an easy going manner, "Don't expect me to go easy just because you're little."

"HEY! I don't expect you to go easy on me! I can take you down anytime." Jeffery laughed at Kenna's pouted face, but he smiled and nodded his head to show that he understood.

"Say, we haven't introduced ourselves have we?" Jeffery looked at Dawn and Lucas, "I'm Jeffery and this here is Kenna."  
"Please to meet you," Dawn said, "I'm Dawn and this here is Lucas."

"You both competing?" Kenna asked.  
"No, I am, but Lucas here is my cheerleader."

"Oh, I could use one as well," Jeffery grinned.

"Do you want me to cheer for you as well?" Lucas asked confused. Jeffery and Kenna laughed.

"It's a joke," Dawn muttered, trying to keep a straight face.

"Oh," Lucas said. He continued to watch the screen as Marian finished the rules of the Contest and started to introduce the judges.

"Introducing the judges, Mr. Pokefan, the president of the Pokemon fan club..." Behind Marian, a short almost balding man appeared behind her. He wore a very nice gray tuxedo and he walked to the judges' podium before seating down. "Next is Mr. Contesta, one of the well known judges for Pokemon Contest!" A gray hair man wearing a red tux appeared on stage and after waving to the audience walked and sat next to Mr. Pokefan."

"Oh, I'm so scared," Dawn muttered. She felt like there were Beautify in her stomachs.

"Don't worry," Lucas grinned, his stupid grin, "You'll do fine. You just need to focus."

"And finally!" Marian concluded, "Please let me welcome you our final judge - the Elite Champion Miss Cynthia!"

"What?" Dawn, Kenna, and Jeffery gasped as the long blond hair woman came out. Her mysterious eyes twinkled under the light and smiled at the bewildered crowd.

"Cynthia," Lucas said, confused, "Why is she here?" He watched the young lady sit next to Mr. Contesta.

"You know her?!" Jeffery gasped staring at Lucas. Lucas shrugged his shoulders.

"Yeah, I talked with her while she bought ice cream." Dawn stared at Lucas' unconcern face.

"Lucas, you just talked with the most famous and strongest Pokemon trainer in the world!" Lucas stared at Dawn who was obviously waiting for effect. Lucas thought back to yesterday. Now that he thought about it, it does make sense.

"Well I guess that explains a lot."

"Lucas I can't believe this! You act as though this is nothing."

"_I_ can't believe it! You talked to Cynthia! And... Oh my gosh! She's the judge! If I want to impress her... I can't mess up! I need to go over my routine again! Presenting... your biggest fan... no wait that sounds too desperate..." Jeffery muttered as he walked off. Kenna stared amazed at Lucas.

"I'm impressed," Kenna said, "you obviously don't know how lucky you are. Speaking of which I need to practice as well. With an Elite Four here, I can't screw up..." She hurried off with Jeffery.

"Oh, dear, I didn't expect this," Dawn muttered. The Beautify in her stomach now turned into large Politoed that seemed to jump around in her stomach. "Now with a Elite Champion as a judge... I..."

"Cheer up!" Lucas said immediately. He looked right into Dawn's eyes. "You just need to have confidence in what you do. Don't worry about it! If you worry, you're not going to do well later." Dawn sighed in frustration.

"I know. I'm just under a lot of pressure," Dawn pushed back her hair and straighten her hat, "you better get back to the audience or else you won't find a good seat."

"Oh, yeah," Lucas jerked his head as if he just realized it, "I better go!" Lucas rushed off, leaving Dawn alone in her own thoughts. Not surprisingly, she wasn't the only one thinking deep in though.

Tory, a brown hair kid, was looking deep in thought at a piece of paper. He felt a deep remorse within him and great sadness, but nevertheless, he was determine to continue with the contest. He crumpled the little wad of paper into his pocket of his golden suit. On the paper was a picture of a little brown hair boy, laughing, next to a red hair girl named Marisa.

...

"Oh dear, I got lost again," Lucas muttered as he walked around helplessly. He was about to collapse from dizziness when he bumped into someone.

"Ouch! Watch where you're – Lucas!" Lucas looked up and saw Lindsay. Her black hair with highlights were tied up with chopsticks. Her purple inky strapless dress fit tightly around her body. A soft long rose pink scarf laid on her shoulder. She wore black high heels and pearl earrings. She looked really elegant and quite beautiful. "I was wondering where you were."

"Hello Lindsay," Lucas said politely, "Did you finish cleaning up the store?" Lindsay laughed.

"Yeah, took a while though, I don't think that guy wants me to come there again. Anyways, you better hurry," Lindsay said, pointing to the clock, "The Contest will start soon, so you better get a move on."

"Right," Lucas nodded and sped off. Lindsay smiled at the clumsy boy as he tripped over his own scarf. He was so cute.

In the corner, a shadow was watching Lucas running off. The shadow smiled and waved its long red hair. Shiki walked off, remembering encountering this boy in Jubilife City. Lucas... so that's what his name was.

...

"Barely got a good seat," Lucas muttered as he sat down between two people. So many people came to this event that it was no wonder that most people were actually standing up.

"Now let the contest begin," Marian, "First we've already given the contestants 60 seconds to dress their Pokemon. Would the first contestant, Shiki please come out!"

The red curtains pushed back, revealing a shoulder length layered red hair girl. She was around Lucas' age and gave a cheerful smile to the audience. She had on a white buttoned up shirt and a long ocean blue skirt that reached to the ground. White flip flops could be seen poking out of the skirt. On her head was a tropical red flower. Her delicate arms had silver dangling jewelry that glittered underneath the light. She released her Pokeball to reveal a Linoone. Its sleek fur glistened. On top of its head was a pink flower. Feathers designed in a necklace was placed on Linoone's neck. It was sitting a pink colored mushroom. The unique designed of Shiki's Pokemon gave an approve roar to the crowd.

The judges nodded in agreement as they commented their opinions.

"I love it," Mr. Pokfan exclaimed, "Very remarkable!"

"Linoone's healthy appearance gives it a beautiful appearance. The feathers represent the quick agile body shape and the flower signifies the beauty," Mr. Contesta remarked, clearly impressed.

"I love the beauty and calm look Linoone gives," Cynthia said, smiling toward Shiki, "Its obvious that you trust each other."

"Well there you have it!" Marian exclaimed, "The judges love it! Remember my audience friends that you can help with the voting as well! Just cheer for the one you love!" The camera zoomed in on Shiki's blushing face.

Lucas almost dropped from his seat as he looked and gasped at the screen. Shiki turned her eyes and looked directly in front of the screen. There, staring back at Lucas, were two gray eyes. The same shape, the same shading, the same eyes staring back at Lucas'.

**Author's Notes**

"You have her eyes. Your mother's eyes." (I think that was in Harry Potter right?) lol.

Dawn gets a new Pokemon. Cynthia becomes a judge. Shiki is introduced...

I love adding so much thrill and unexpected plot twist.

Well, ALL of OC's will go next in the upcoming chapter. This contest might take four or five or six chapters... If that's okay with you guys.

Also, I decided to write about Damion's travel as a flashback.

Okay, now to thank my reviewers.

...

thank you...

**phantom shadow mask**

**Synctrainer Lucas**

**Ketchum Kid**

**amichalap**

**Jarkes**

**SsX-77**

**X-Spark**

**xoxbb**

**WolfSummoner93**

**Unknown**

**Pikana**

**Kingston (thank you for the OC.)  
**

for reviewing.

...

Well, lots of stuff happened in this chapter. I wanted to make this two part but because I promised the contest to start in this chapter... oh well.

Thanks for reading and I'll see ya next time.

**-JapanDreamer**


	26. Painful Remembrance

**Disclaimer: Own Pokemon? Not me.**

My final update before school starts again for me... then its back to one update per two weeks...

anywho, forget what I said in the last chapter. Some of the OCs will be in here, not all.

Enjoy the chapter!

**Chapter 23:**

"Well Shiki has a good chance in getting to the second round!" Marian announced as Shiki walked off stage, "Let's welcome our second contestant Lan!" Lucas didn't finish hearing what Marian said and hurried out of the room and to the back of the stage where all the coordinators were. Lucas searched desperately and to his amazement he saw Shiki standing there with a couple of guys. They were all talking at the same time, trying to get Shiki's attention. However, she just smiled sweetly and laughed a bit before rushing away.

"Phew, they sure like to talk a lot," Shiki muttered. She was really glad that she managed to find time to come here and compete in the contest. With school and all, Shiki barely has any free time. She was walking down the hall to get a drink of water when she stopped. She suddenly felt like she was being watched and noticed a small head poking out for the corridor. She took a closer look and saw to her amazement the same boy she saw earlier. For some reason his eyes look very familiar. Too familiar.

"Hi there," Shiki smiled. Lucas blushed immediately, wishing he hid better. He walked out of his hiding place and slowly walked toward Shiki.

"Hi," Lucas muttered, feeling quite uncomfortable.

"So," Shiki smiled kindly, "is there a reason why you're hiding?"

"Um, not really. Just felt like we met somewhere before..." Lucas muttered, wishing he could sink to the floor.

"Well of course we did," Shiki said wide eyed.

"We did?" Lucas asked, quite startled. How could she know?

"Yeah in Jubilife remember?" Shiki said, confused. For some reason, she has a feeling that Lucas means otherwise. "You, err, slammed your head on the Pokemon Center sign." Lucas tried to remember what Shiki was talking about. He was walking to the Pokemon Center, hit a sign, couple of girls laughing...

"Oh." Lucas simply said, looking relieved. Shiki laughed.

"Are you always this carefree," Shiki asked. Lucas shrugged.

"I... am an absent-minded person... I guess that's a bit of a problem."

"That's cool," Shiki smiled, "I understand. I know someone who is exactly like you."  
"Really?"

"Yeah, he's a bit of an idiot. Never takes things seriously." Lucas frowned. He heard those words somewhere before... "But I never see him get angry. He always has this stupid grin on his face." Shiki's eyes turned dew wet and realizing this, she quickly wiped her face.

"Is he here with you?" Lucas asked, still trying to remember where he heard those same words Shiki had said."

"No. He moved," Shiki simply said and didn't elaborate, "Oh yeah, you should get back to the audience. You're not supposed to be back here."

"Oh that's right," Lucas thought, remembering.

"Lucas, what're you doing back here?" Lucas and Shiki looked around and saw Dawn walking towards the both of them. Dawn stared with her eyebrows high up in the air as she looked at the two.

"Oh, um, Dawn this is Shiki. Shiki this is Dawn," Lucas quickly introduced, "I met Shiki at Jubilife." Shiki gave a warm smile and held out her hand. Dawn did the same thing and they both shook.

"Pleasure to meet you," Shiki smiled, "You two traveling?"

"Yeah," Dawn replied, "We're here for the Pokemon Contest." Dawn couldn't help noticing that Shiki was a natural born model. Her red hair was luxurious soft and her gray eyes seemed to smile as though it had its own mouth.

"Well that sure explains," Shiki laughed, "I thought it was a strange coincidence to meet Lucas again." Dawn gave a small laugh as well. Lucas looked at both of the girls. They both seemed to get along quite nicely. "Say, where are my manners? I haven't introduced one of my friends yet. He's also competing as well."

"Really?" Dawn asked interested.

"Yeah, hold on I'll get him. He's taking such a long time to change." Shiki hurried off, leaving the two alone.

"You never mention Shiki to me," Dawn said to Lucas. He shrugged his shoulders.

"I saw her but never really knew her name until just now," Lucas muttered. Dawn looked at him and smiled.

"You like her?" Dawn asked with a mischievous voice. It took Lucas a moment to register what Dawn was asking.

"Err, I just met her. So I don't know... I mean she is nice, but... wait what?" Lucas asked, completely confused as to what Dawn was asking.

"Never mind," Dawn groaned. Boys are hopeless when it comes to love. Shiki came hurrying back. A shadow was right behind her stumbling because she was dragging him.

"Dawn, Lucas. Meet my friend," Shiki said between breaths, "who I might add is very slow and lazy." Shiki's friend has brown hair and was wearing a white robe tinged with bluish color. The collar, hem, and sleeve were lined with thick white fur. Under the robe, he had on a white shirt with a large slightly blue snowflake on the back of it. He had on sky blue pants and white boots. On his shoulder was a Pachurisu.

Lucas involuntarily flinched at the guy who seemed to look confused for a moment before his brown eyes recognized Lucas.

"I would like you to meet Fuuta."

...

"Now let's introduce our next contestant – Jeffery!" Marisa announced. Jeffery hurried onto the stage waving to the crowd as he received applauses. He immediately took a quick glance at Cynthia who was talking to Mr. Contesta. Jeffery couldn't help but blush. He was going to make his appeal stand out more than others.

"Ladies and gentleman, I give you Jolteon!" Jeffery announced. The lightining fox popped out of its Pokeball.

Jolteon sat on a large gray pillow that was in the shape of a fluffy cloud. It's bright yellow vest glimmered like gold under the spotlight. Although nobody could see it, Jeffery had placed a small 'I'm your #1 fan Cynthia' button on the vest.

"Lovely," Mr. Contesta said, "Quite an appearance. The way you outline the Pokemon's power is extraordinary!'

"Remarkable," Mr. Pokefan replied, "Just remarkable!"

"Beautiful," Cynthia grinned, "Showing the power but also the strength of the Pokemon. Though the color is a little bit on the bright side." Jeffery grinned and felt himself feeling very red in the face. His greatest idol just praised him! Before he started to feel like he was going to hyperventilate from happiness, Jeffery quickly walked off the stage.

"Right, for our twentieth and final contestant for group one, please welcome Kenna!" The emerald hair girl jumped happily onto the stage, smiling and beaming at the nice applauses she received.

"Come out Pachurisu!" The little blue and white electric squirrel popped out of its Pokeball. It landed on a large bouncy toadstool. On its head was a small tiara and it was wearing a purple vest. Childlike, it bounced up and down the toadstool like on a bed, causing cooing and 'awws' from the crowd.

"Cute," Cynthia commented, "I love how you show the playfulness of your Pokemon, though I don't think that purple suit matches it."

"Remarkable," Mr. Pokefan said, "Simply remarkable."

"I think there's a little bit of problem with showing a tiara and mushroom together, but Pachurisu really knows how to enjoy itself."

"There you have it," Marian announced, "Kenna's appeal." Kenna bowed respectfully to the judges before walking off stage with her Pokemon. "Now we're going to have a twenty minute break. The second group will come next so stick around!"

...

Brip! Brip! Mars flinched at the sound. She certainly didn't expect the leader to call so soon. She picked up her small 'G' phone and scroll down the text message to read what it said.

Contest starting. Initiate phase two of the plan.

Commander Mars frowned, but didn't say anything. It made sense that she should be here in the wind energy building to continue gathering energy, but why shouldn't she got and work at phase two. Doesn't make any sense. There was another chirp. This time someone was trying to call her. She pressed the receive button and on the screen popped up a man's face.

"Saturn," Mars said, in an unemotional voice.

"Mars, you know the rules. I called just so you won't disobey," Saturn said through the communication piece. He sighed, wishing Mars would just accept the fact and not question. "I'm just relaying the message."

"Does that mean I'm incompetent?!" Mars growled.

"No," Saturn snapped, "If you haven't noticed you managed to become a commander at such a young age. You completed mission with half the amount of people others would need. Look I don't know why but it's the orders." Mars bit her tongue to stop herself from retorting back.

"So, who'll be in charge there?" Mars asked calmly.

"Venus."  
"What?!" Mars yelled, "You're giving that newbie an important mission like this?!"  
"Wait a minute. ME?! Listen Mars, I'M relaying the INFO. If you got a problem just go and complain to the boss, though I won't be saving your sorry butt." Mars growled. As much as a hot head she is, there was no way she was going to complain to the boss.

"Fine. Whatever," Mars muttered, still not satisfied with the reason why she couldn't lead this mission.

"Give Venus the information and the plan," Saturn said. He could understand why Mars was clearly pissed off. Giving all of her plans and work to someone else and to get the credit would make anyone mad, "Don't worry. The boss will give you as much credit as anyone else." With that Saturn closed the connection and disappeared from the screen.

Mars cursed as she called Venus. This time an orange hair girl appeared on the screen. Her ginger eyes brightened when she saw Mars.

"Hiya Mars!" Venus smiled and saluted. Mars groaned at this greeting.

"That's Commander Mars to you newbie," Mars shot back.

"Okay, okay, sorry," the girl frowned. Mars was an awesome person Venus admitted. Mars managed to become commander at such a young age. It was her that Venus admired and respected but still, Venus kinda wish that Mars would lighten more. "So do I get the okay?"

"Yes, I'm sending the information to you through the main computer." Mars said through gritted teeth. How she hated to say that word.

"Thanks for letting me know. I won't let you down Commander Mars," Venus saluted again and the screen went blank.

Mars sighed as she looked at the electricity being gathered and stored into large tanks which are being shipped by Grunts. While she absently minded sent the large bulk of text to Venus' Galactic's computer, she tried to think about what was so important about the contest that she couldn't go. She has a faint memory of someone she knew. Someone she loved who use to...

_Wish me luck sister! I'll win this contest for you!_

Mars immediately flinched at the memory. Her head was filled with electrical shock. She almost collapsed to the floor but tried to steady herself, breathing heavily.

What was that?

...

Tory snapped out of his dazed mode. He looked around wildly as if someone was watching him. However, the only people around him were coordinators, who were trying to fix up their attire and their Pokemons', ignoring him completely. Tory immediately felt his head wondering if there was something wrong with him. Deep in his pocket he took out the picture again. With an uneasy glace around him, he took a deep breath. His Evee stared at him; looking quite concern but he shook his head and smile.

"Don't worry its nothing," Tory smiled. Though in his mind, he couldn't help feeling something bad was going to happen.

**Author's notes**

hehehehehehehehehe, more bad things up ahead.

This should be fun. Let's thank my reviewers now.

...

Thank you

**phantom shadow mask**

**SsX-77**

**Ketchum Kid**

**xoxbb**

**X-Spark**

**?**

**dark5523**

**Pikana**

**Jarkes**

**KagomeSMercury**

**Unknown**

**KingstonXx**

for reviewing.

...

All right, back to schedule. No more two updates per week so to speak.

see ya!

**-JapanDreamer**


	27. Contest Still Going

**Disclaimer: This is not a hoax. I do not own Pokemon or bunnies.**

I AM SO SORRY FOR NOT UPDATING! I had a out of town trip and received two projects and three tests right after I came back. I've been lagging behind school work so I used this whole week to catch up.

Anyways, I hastily wrote this just to show that this story is NOT DEAD yet. It will not be dead until the story is finish or I'm dead. Either way it will continue.

Enjoy the hastily written chapter.

**Chapter 24:**

"Fuuta!" Dawn exclaimed with amazement. Shiki looked surprised at Dawn's recongnition and immediately looked at both of them.

"You guys know each other?"  
"Sort of," Fuuta shrugged; his eyes were on Lucas who looked very uncomfortable at the glare, "They had to leave quickly before we could properly know each other. Speaking of which where is that blond hair guy you were traveling?"

"Oh, Damion?" Dawn said, "Well, he's at Orenburgh City competing for the gym badge."

"Oh, I see," Fuuta commented. He watched the depths of Lucas' eyes grow wide with fear. It was obvious that he was still thinking about the conversation they had before. Fuuta got a funny feeling that Dawn doesn't even know Lucas' secret. There was an awkward silence as Shiki stared at the threesome.

"Well, Fuuta you're coming up next," Shiki said, clearing her throat, "You better go and hurry up."  
"Yeah, I suppose so," Fuuta shrugged, his eyes still on Lucas, "I'll be seeing you around again." Lucas' eyes were filled with relief, glad that Fuuta wasn't going to comment about the last thing they talked about in Jubilife. Fuuta shook Dawn's and Lucas' hand before he walked off to the back stage to get ready. Shiki sighed as she watched her friend leave.

"Strange, he's usually moody but not this moody..." Shiki muttered loud enough for Dawn and Lucas to hear, "Anyways, Lucas, I think its best if you hurry up and get back to your seat."

"Oh, yeah," Lucas said, remembering that he shouldn't be back here, "Bye Shiki, bye Dawn." Lucas hurried off, tripping over his scarf along the way. Shiki couldn't help laughing at the sight.

"He's definitely like Daniel," Shiki chuckled as she walked back into the room where the contestants were staying.

"Daniel?" Dawn asked, confused.

"He's a friend of mine," Shiki explained as she pulled out her Pokeball to summon Delcatty.

"Wow!" Dawn exclaimed as the large cat purred and rubbed against Shiki's legs, "That's a gorgeous Delcatty!" Delcatty gave a satisfying nod to Dawn. Its creamy skin glittered under the spotlight, attracting quite a few Pokemon as well.

"Thanks," Shiki grinned, "Daniel gave her to me for my birthday."

"Really?" Dawn looked surprised.

"Well, he gave me Skitty" Shiki amended, "I evolved it later with a Moon Stone."

"Daniel is a pretty great guy huh?" Dawn smiled.

"He sure is," Shiki smiled, "Strange though, Fuuta never mentioned how he met you guys. I thought he would've told me since Lucas and Daniel look exactly alike."  
"Wait what?" Dawn asked confused.

"Fuuta never told you?" Shiki asked, frowning, "Lucas look exactly like Daniel. In fact, I think they would've been brothers if it weren't for those eyes." Shiki frowned again as if she was trying to remember something. "Anyways, it's not a big deal I guess. Though maybe I should ask Fuuta about this later..." Shiki continued to brush her Delcatty's fur, leaving Dawn in her thoughts, wondering what's with this weird connection...

...

"Ladies and Gentleman, let's continue on the first round!" Marian announced, listening to the cheers and roars, "Let's start off with our first contestant- Tory!" Tory gave an appreciated bow to the crowd before the Evee jumped up onto the platform. Its right ear had a small red feather and it was wearing a gold sweater the fit quite snuggly on its body. There were quite a couple of squeals from the girls. Feeling confident, Evee laid on its back hugged its tail. This caused a couple of more squealing and cooing from the audience. The only one who wasn't in it was Tory.

Tory tried to concentrate as Marian and the judges commented on Evee's appearance, but it was very hard. It wouldn't be the first time trouble will come here. In fact showing himself in public is very risky. Tory just hoped that nothing serious will happen. He kept looking over his shoulder as if he was watched. Before he realized it, Evee jumped back onto his shoulder and gave him a small bite on the ear.

"Ouch!" Tory muttered. Evee nuzzled against his neck, telling him that they were finish. "Sorry Evee, let's go." With that Tory hurried off of the stage, almost bumping into the next contestant.

"Oops sorry," Fuuta jumped back to let Tory past through. Pachurisu watched the coordinator with his Evee leaving in such a hurry. Something was wrong with the two.

_What's up with that?  
_"No idea," Fuuta muttered as he hurried onto the stage, "Anyways, stay here until I finish."

_Yeah, yeah, I know the drill_. Pachurisu yawned and jumped off of Fuuta's back, waiting backstage.

"Now let's welcome Fuuta, our next contestant!" Marina announced, still looking slightly confused at Tory's sudden disappearance. Fuuta smiled determinedly as he took out his Pokeball.

A huge mist filled the air and a Glaceon appeared. There were a couple of 'awws' from the crowd. Glaceon was wearing a light blue cape with a dark blue snowflake on the back. The blue fur on the back of its legs stick out like icicles, giving it a speedy look.

"Amazing," Marina exclaimed, "I never seen such an amazing display of ice Pokemon!"

"I love it," Cynthia grinned, "One of the best."

"Remarkable!" Mr. Pokefan announced.

"Very chilling looking," Mr. Contesta decided, "I think the ice on its legs do not completely match the attire though.

"Well there you have it!" Mariana announced, "Let's give a round of applause to Fuuta!" Fuuta bowed respectfully to the crowd before returning Glaceon and leaving the stage.

_You did well_, Pachurisu commented as it climbed back onto Fuuta's shoulder.

"Yeah, but this is just the beginning," Fuuta remarked, "Meanwhile do you feel like sneaking off?"

_To go sleep?_ Pachurisu asked.

"No, but that's a good idea," Fuuta said, "I mean Lucas."  
_Ah, him_. Pachurisu yawned again, _I suppose so, but knowing him, he won't talk_.

"We don't need him to," Fuuta grinned, "Just pry into his mind a bit for me will ya?"

_What?!_ Pachurisu jerked up, its eyes, once filled with sleep, now consumed with alertness. _That's dangerous!_

"I was just joking," Fuuta sighed, "What's the point of having that ability if we won't use it." Pachurisu glared before going back to sleep, leaving Fuuta alone as he prepare to find Lucas.

...

Drifloon slowly dragged itself across the ground. The white coat it took from the office was slowly pulling it down. It managed to fly right over the town, but before it could find the 'help' that professor needed, Drifloon started to lose altitude. Finally the weight was too much and it fell on top of a building. The coat was slowly dragging it down off the roof and before Drifloon could recover, it fell to the ground.

A shadow loomed over it and that was the last thing Drifloon saw before it passed out.

**Author's Notes**

I will NEVER do this kind of contest again... URGH!

Anyways, updates will pause for a bit until I can get my school work back up.

Now to thank my reviewers.

...

Thank you

j**arkes**

**phantom shadow mask**

**Ss-X77**

**X-Spark** (Your new name is too long, so you will always be aknowledged as X-Spark until I figure out a way to write your name without looking back and forth to check I spelled it correctly... lol)

**Ketchum Kid**

**WolfSummoner93**

**Blake Wilson**

**SynctrainerLucas**

**Pikana**

**Crownofthorns**

**hello** (I'm assuming you're also hello again right?)

**Assassin42**

**this one guy**

**QuentinV**

**Unknown**

for reviewing.

...

Hey guys, review please! That way I'll become more motivated to update!

**-JapanDreamer**


	28. Memories Can be Painful

**Disclaimer: Not in the mood to own Pokemon.**

Hiya. Well, I managed to update though this will probably be the last one until the end of May. Got a lot of tests. Again, please be patient.

Sigh, I wish I had a Wii. I want to go vent out my anger by smashing video game characters up in Super Smash Bros Brawl. lol.

Enjoy the chapter. new plot twist.

**Chapter 25:**

"Now for the next performer, let's welcome Lindsay!"

"Come out Mismagius!" The dark purple Pokemon appeared out of its Pokeball. It was wearing a glittering blood red dress. The color fit perfectly well with Mismagius who bowed in a respectful manner to the crowd. There was a respected gasp from the crowd. A magnificent Pokemon it was.

"Wow, she's good," Shiki commented as the judges said their opinions on the appearance.

"Really?" Dawn asked, feeling a little bit stupid.

"Yeah, the colors go well with Mismagius. Also, those clothes are well made. I think she made it herself." Shiki said this as though she was a pro in seeing this stuff.

"Whoo, it's almost over." Dawn turned around and saw Jeffery walking towards them, his Jolteon walking right by him. "This contest is pretty long compare to the other ones I've been to. Kenna even fell asleep."

"Hey! At least I wasn't snoring!" Kenna exclaimed from behind. Jeffery grinned apologetically.

"You are?" Shiki asked, confused.

"Oh, sorry," Jeffery said, "I'm Jeffery and this is Kenna."

"You're Kenna?" Shiki asked surprised. Kenna nodded. "I heard about you before. I know your cousin."

"Really? You know Drew?" Kenna asked surprise.

"Drew?!" Dawn repeated, shocked. One of the top coordinator's cousins is standing right before her?

"Well, not that well," Shiki explained, "Did a couple of contests before. But still, it's a great pleasure to meet you." Kenna grinned.

"Pleasure to meet you..."

"Shiki," Shiki said and shook Kenna's hand. Suddenly there was a huge roar of applause and everybody's head turn to the screen. Lindsay has just finish her performance and was walking off stage.

"Well, now its time for the next coordinator to come up," Marian exclaimed, "Please welcome Melissa."

"Oh, dear, look at the time," Jeffery said, "I must be going now to go buy... err, stuff." He hurried out of the room before anyone could question him.

"Yeah, more like flowers for Cynthia," Kenna whispered. Dawn and Shiki giggled. "Anyways, I better go now. Got to get ready for the next round."

"You sound pretty confident," Dawn remarked. Kenna turned to her and grinned.

"When you're competition, you need to have confidence and to be prepare to succeed." Kenna walked off, leaving the two coordinators alone again.

"Anyways, I wonder where Fuuta is. I need to ask him about Lucas?" Shiki said, looking around the room, hoping to see Fuuta among the crowd.

"That's strange his performance is already finished."  
"Speaking of performance," Shiki shook her red hair, "Isn't your turn up soon?"

"Oh no!" Dawn exclaimed. She totally forgot about that. "Oh no...no... no..."

"Hold on. Calm down!" Shiki said, laughing, "Go ahead and get prepare. And remember to have confidence when you walk on that stage." Dawn nodded and hurried out of the room. Shiki grinned. Dawn was acting like she did on her very first contest. With luck, Dawn will be just fine.

_Now_, Shiki thought as she too walked out of the room, _I wonder where is Fuuta? I think its best I go look for him. Knowing him, he's off to do something crazy again._

...

"There he is," Fuuta whispered, watching Lucas stare at a dead end. Fuuta and Pachurisu were about ten feet away, hiding around the corner. It took quite a long time to find Lucas, given the fact that he wasn't in the audience.

"Sigh, got lost again," Lucas sighed. He turned around, retracing his steps.

"So like him," Fuuta muttered.

_Shush!_ Pachurisu hissed in Fuuta's mind. Lucas was walking close to where they were and Fuuta immediately fell silent. Fuuta consider the idea of asking Lucas, but know him, he'll probably try to spin another weave of lies. There was only one thing to do.

_Sorry, Pachurisu, I'm going to use it._

_WHAT?! Wait Fuuta!"_ Too late. Once Lucas was hearing distance, Fuuta closed his eyes and from his mind send out a wavelength of energy. Immediately, Fuuta felt himself entering into Lucas' mind. Fuuta's special ability to enter the mind was powerful. Being able to see into memories was an interesting power, but required lots of energy and if he didn't get out before all of his energy is used up, then his mind will be forever trapped.

_Just a few minutes,_ Fuuta decided. He plunged into the recollections and immediately swirls of colors surrounded him. Things were going fine. Fuuta could see that he was getting closer and closer to the desire time he wanted to see.

Then something went wrong.

...

"Fuuta flinched. What in the world is going on? Fuuta found himself standing in what appears to be a dismal dried out forest. Gray raindrops were falling from the cloudy sky and splattering the muddy place. Although he was in the memory and he couldn't feel nor touch anything, the cold area made him shiver still. Fuuta found Lucas. Only Lucas was about eight years old. Small and mousy looking, Lucas was wearing a torn white shirt and small blue jeans that were ripped pretty badly. He was standing in front of a small tombstone with no name on it. In front of it was a small paper flower, hanging limp with its color washed away by the rain. Fuuta couldn't help but feel uneasy. He looked around and saw that there were many tombstones. This place? A cementary?

"Why, why did you die," Lucas whispered, touching the tombstone, "This wasn't suppose to happen. This wasn't supposed to... hic" Fuuta couldn't tell because of the rain, but it looked as though Lucas was crying.

Fuuta walked around, looking at each tombstone. Something was definitely wrong. This place, what is this place. Suddenly, Fuuta came to a stop at a certain tombstone, the name, weathered, but still there. Slowly, Fuuta's eyes turned wide as he read the name.

No, no. What the hell is going on?! Fuuta took a step back, feeling scared and horrified. There was a sudden gust of wind and Fuuta felt himself hurling out of the memory, leaving a tearful Lucas behind.

...

FUUTA! Pachurisu screamed. Fuuta woke up and found himself lying on the ground. He slowly got up and to his shock found Lucas who pulled him up off the ground. Fuuta felt himself turning red but tried to remain calm. There was no way Lucas could know that he pried into his memory. Yet, the look on Lucas' face, calm and sad, seemed to give a different story.

"So," Lucas asked softly, "did my memory answer your question?"

**Author's Notes**

Whoa, didn't see that coming. lol

Let's thank my reviewers.

...

thank you

**this one guy**

**xoxbb**

**SynctrainerLucas**

**Phantom shadow mask**

**Sparky**

**Pikana**

**Kingston**

**Jarkes**

**cool**

**RWT**

**unknown**

**grammaguy**

**skrmry98**

**skittkit**

for reviewing.

...

Okay, if I miss anyone, I apologize. But with so much work, I tend to forget easily. XP

anyways, updatets still slow. Keep reviewing please.

see ya when school is almost over for me.

**-JapanDreamer**


	29. Underattack

**Disclaimer: Reality sinks in. I don't own Pokemon.**

**JP: **Well, hello and sorry for not writing as much. Homework is still going (Despite the fact that school is almost over) But don't worry I have everything under control!

**Damion:** Liar. I've seen your room.

**JP:** EH?! How did you appear here? What happen to my fire wall?!

**Damion**: Stupid, I haven't been in this story for over five chapters! I have nothing else better to do except to come into your intros.

**JP **(thinking of some lame excuse to buy time): Oh... well, you'll come in soon.

**Damion **(Choking **JP**): That's what you said last time!

**JP**: Wahhh! I'm doing my best with updates!

So enjoy the chapter!

**Chapter 26**:

"That's my father's coat!" Drifloon woke up wearily, wondering who was making so much noise. Through its tired eyes it could see three looming shadows hovering next to it. Now that Drifloon thought about it, what is this place?

Drifloon noticed that he was on a small white bed, long wires were connected to it and a continuous sound of beeping could be heard from the machines hooked up to the wires.

"There must be a mistake," another voice cried, a woman's, "The professor wouldn't send a wild Drifloon with a coat covered with blood."  
"But Nurse Joy, this coat's pocket has his I.D. in it!" the girl's voice objected, sobs could be heard in between words.

"This is serious, a gruff voice said, "We need to find someone to go to the place and find out what is the matter." Drifloon sighed deeply in relief, knowing that the man will be all right now.

"What about the Pokemon?" the woman asked, "What do we do with it?"

"What do you think?" the man snapped back, "You're a nurse. Get it healed and then released it. It put a lot of trouble in just to bring us the message. The least we can do is to send it back without any trouble." There was a clomping sound of boots and a loud slam.

"Middy, stay here with the Drifloon. I'm going to check with the other Pokemon. Let me know if there is any trouble." the woman's voice said and with that the door slammed again. The room was quite still except the beeping noises, indicating Drifloon's heartbeat and the sniffs and sobs from the little girl. Drifloon felt uneasy and very concern. It decided that once it was fully charged, it will go back to the building to check if the man is okay.

...

"Wha- Bu- how?" Fuuta sputtered, trying to convey his shock. Never before had he known people to be able to know when he entered into other's minds. Lucas shrugged his shoulders.

"I had practice," Lucas said, before walking off. He stopped for a moment and looked back at Fuuta, "Say, do you know where the stage is? I can't figure out where it is exactly." Fuuta continued to gape at Lucas

_Fuuta!_ Pachurisu snapped. Fuuta jerked out of his dazed mode. "Huh, uh... what?"

_Honestly, you're becoming more and more like Daniel. All you need to do is gain some extra weight._ Pachurisu slyly remarked.

"Shut up," Fuuta growled back. Lucas looked wide-eye at this apparently silent communication, but decided not to say anything about it.

"Do you know how to get back to the Pokemon Contest?" Lucas asked again, in a calm tone. "Dawn's performance is coming up soon, in fact," Lucas looks worry now, "I hope I can still make it..."

"Err, sure," Fuuta said, uneasy at Lucas now oblivious look of what just happened, "Yeah, just follow me..." Fuuta lead the way as Lucas clumsily tried to keep up. "So," Fuuta cleared his throat for attention, "How did you know I was in your..." He paused, unable to find the right words to finish his question. He waited for a few minutes before he realized that there was a soft snoring sound behind him. Fuuta turned around and saw Lucas apparently sleep walking. There was a very heavy awkward silence.

"WAKE UP!"

"Zzzzt- huh, huh, what?!" Lucas snapped back awake, turning his head from left to right. Fuuta sighed. He was starting to understand why Damion keep choking Lucas.

"How did you know I was in your head," Fuuta asked, this time in a whisper, "You were able to control what I see and even send me out." Lucas looked puzzled.

"I'm sorry, but were you in my mind?" Fuuta frowned at Lucas' response. Fuuta couldn't tell if Lucas is really faking that he didn't know or if he has truly forgotten.

"Seriously, what's going on?" Fuuta asked, "You act all forgetful, but you seem to use it to hide something and you never give a straight answer. And most importantly," Fuuta came closer until Lucas could see Fuuta's glowing angry eyes. "that tombstone..."

Before Lucas could open his mouth to respond... BOOM!

...

"Let's now give up for our final performer – Dawn!" Dawn appeared on stage, her sky blue dress glowing slightly. Dawn immediately felt overwhelm by the large crowd and could almost feel her leg collapsing under her. She scanned over the crowd and to her disappointment, she didn't find Lucas, but then again, the crowd is enormous so it is possible that she might have missed him.

Dawn realized that she needed to focus. Taking a deep calm breath, Dawn took out her Pokeball. "Come out Piplup!" The little blue penguin popped out of its Pokeball.

"Pip! Pip!" The Pokemon chirped. It was wearing a small tailored made black tuxedo with a black top hat to match. It looked like a small gentleman or a magician.

"Aww, so cute," Marian exclaimed, "A perfect gentleman!" Piplup smirked and puffed its chest out proudly. Quite a respectful applaud can be heard through the crowd. "Let's hear what the judges have to say."

"I love Piplup's coat," Cynthia said, "You obviously worked hard to make it shine so healthily."

"Remarkable!" Mr. Pokefan replied, "Simply remarkable!"

"Piplup has a strong personality and -" Mr. Contesta didn't finish his statement for there was a... BOOM!"

...

Tory was lost in his thoughts when he heard the explosion.

"What the-" Jeffery exclaimed, "What's with this explosion?!"

"T-th-the walls are collapsing!" Keena gasped, and sure enough the white creamy walls started to form spider-like cracks. Plaster were falling down in large quantities. The world seem to be in a shock-like stance until someone screamed and that broke the spell.

"Everybody! Get out NOW!" Shiki yelled, but she didn't need to say that. All of the coordinators were rushing toward the exit, screaming their head off. The wall finally gave away and the ceiling came crashing down. "Get your Pokemon out for help!"

"Siczor! Iron Defense and Quick Attack!" Jeffery yelled. The large red steel Pokemon grabbed Jeffery and flew to the top, moving with such flexibility so that the debris didn't hit them.

"Rapidash!" Kenna cried, "Fire Spin!" The fire Pokemon sent a huge spiral of flames around it and charged out of the room, protecting its trainer who is riding on its back.

"Delcatty Protect!" Shiki yelled and a green half semi-circle shield appeared around Shiki and Delcatty and the plaster fell harmlessly on it.

Tory gaped at the destruction, watching that girl Lindsay summoned out her Finneon to use Gust and blow away the rocks. Lindsay noticed Tory's dazed stare.

"What are you doing?!" Lindsay roared, "Stop daydreaming like an idiot and get out of here!" Tory snapped out of his confusion and finally realized that this place isn't going to last long and this wasn't a dream.

"Buizel Aqua Jet!" The water Pokemon grabbed Tory and surrounded them in a water looking shield before shooting out into in the air like a rocket blasting off with dihydrogen monoxide fuel. Tory held his breath as long as possible until Buizel managed to get him out to safety. Gasping for air, Tory dropped to the soft grassy ground. The building was collapsing and large rocks were falling down like meteorites. Buizel collapsed from exhaustion. A large piece of the building came crashing down toward where Tory was.

"Scizor Slash!" Tory gasped as the large Pokemon cut down a rock in half just before it fell on him. He looked up and noticed the trainer who ordered the attack.

"Be careful!" Jeffery yelled, "Let's get out of range!" He rushed over to pick up Tory from the ground. "Come on, don't dawdle!"

"Found you T-O-R-Y!" A voice said, saying the letter of the person's name like a child singing along the alphabet. Jeffery whipped his head around and found a hand around his throat as he was lifted off the ground. Gagging for air, Jeffery tried to pry the strong hands off but failed. He noticed a yellow G symbol on the shirt of the guy who lifted him in the air. Strange... also the bright blue bowl cut hair was pretty out of fashion... not to mention the space geek looking clothes...

Tory jolted at the voice and seemed to shrink in fear at the people in front of him. "You guys..." Jeffery felt his vision suddenly turning dimmer and saw vaguely a strange long orange hair pigtail girl giggling.

"What's wrong Tory? No welcome back hugs for us?"

**Author's Notes**

We'll that was an unexpected turn of events. HUGE EPIC BATTLE will come soon. Lots of fighting.

Anyways, on to news I would like to share.

First off, **NEW REMAKE OF SILVER AND GOLD VERSION!** WHOOT! Who is excited about this?

I can't wait. However, I'm disappointed in a few things.

1) the main character girl is not Crystal. Crystal looks better than this other person.

2) Its coming out in the fall which MEANS that I won't get it until next year. WAHHH!

3) Not much news about it so kinda depressing (its like becoming addicted to anime and manga all over again. Waiting for the next episode/chapter to come out...)

and that's all.

Next piece of news. I am busy so if I didn't give any thanks for reviewing, then I apologize AGAIN.

Okay lets thank my reviewers.

...

Thank you

**Pikana**

**phantom shadow mask**

**WolfSummoner93**

**dark5523**

**Sparky (I see you changed your name again)**

**Jarkes (lol. yes, I find it quite strange that this story has the most reivews out of all of my others.)**

**RWT**

**Ketchum Kid**

**grammaguy**

**xoxbb**

**SsX-77**

**puppykid**

**Kingston**

**A-Imouto**

**Unknown**

**Innocenia**

**Aiko**

**renniegirl**

for reviewing.

...

WOW! Lots of reviewers. Hey! Sudden idea! Lets see if I can get 450 reviews in total before I update again! lol

All right, enjoy the suspense and I'm going to go dive back into my homework before Damion kills me.

**-JapanDreamer**


	30. We're All Running Back and Forth

**Disclaimer: I don't own Pokemon.**

Hiya! New chapter! School work is slowing down so I actually have time to write more than usual. Anyways, I managed to put up a stronger firewall... let's hope Damion can't break through it again. lol.

This is longer than usual (four pages) so that gives you a sign that my updates will be longer.

Enjoy!

**Chapter 27**:

"What the-" Fuuta gasped, as he tried to keep his balance. Lucas looked wide eye back at Fuuta, completely confused as well. The whole hallway rocked back and forth like an earthquake is occurring, shaking them from left to right, up and down. "The place... We got to get out of here!" Fuuta grabbed Lucas and hurried out of the hallway that seems to be getting longer and longer.

_Futta! This place is not going to hold on much longer!_ Pachurisu exclaimed.

"Then we'll have to move faster!" Fuuta replied back, concentrating on the doorway as he avoided the rocks and plaster falling down from the ceiling. Just by chance, Fuuta managed to open the door and pull Lucas out of the hallway and into the main building where there are thousands of people screaming to get to the exit. A huge crowd of people collided into the both of them and they were separated.

"LUCAS!" Fuuta screamed, but his voice was drowned by the sounds of sirens and screams. He tried to grab Lucas' outreached hand but all he got was air. Lucas, being pushed in the opposite direction, was trying to say something as well but Fuuta couldn't hear him. Suddenly, Fuuta found himself being moved out of the door and into the sunlight outdoors. "Lucas!" Fuuta yelled again as he tried to go back into the building, but going against the flow of traffic was like going against a herd of angry Tauros.

_He'll be all right_, Pachurisu said, though he sound worried, _He can stand on his own two feet, but first we need to find Shiki and the other coordinators. They were downstairs so I don't know if they're better off_.

Shiki... Fuuta almost forgot about her and rushed off, praying that Lucas would be all right.

...

The first thing Dawn thought as the large part of the ceiling came crashing down was horror. It seemed time was passing slowly but Dawn's legs couldn't move. All she could do was a reflex move, causing her arms to shield over her head.

"Garchomp Brick Break!" Dawn looked up slowly and saw a large purple dragon shielding her from the falling rocks. "Are you okay?" the same voice asked. Dawn looked around and saw Cynthia rushing towards her.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Dawn replied, though her legs were still shaking. Piplup rushed over, looking extremely concerned.

"Get out of here quickly," Cynthia nodded to the audience where everybody was rushing toward the exit, "I'll take care of the others. Just go!" Dawn nodded in silence and hurried out with her Piplup.

Cynthia watched Dawn leave before turning her attention to the falling Pokemon Contest building. "Let's get to work Garchomp!" She rode on Garchomp as it carefully ran down the hallway.

Dawn gasped as the crowd was squeezing her to death. Piplup chirped in discomfort, being squashed by the person in front of him.

"Sorry Piplup; we'll get out of here. I promise," Dawn reasoned. Piplup continued to look uncomfortable but didn't say anything. Suddenly, another wave of people came toward the group, making the crowd congestion even worse.

"Ouch!" A voice said, colliding into Dawn.

"Lucas?!" Dawn gasped, seeing Lucas rubbing his head as though he was in pain.

"Dawn? Oh good," Lucas sighed in relief, "did you finish your performance? I'm sorry I'm late. There was this giant earthquake and then these people kept pushing me back and forth. I wonder why though..." Dawn gaped at Lucas' comment before saying...

"WHAT DO YOU THINK?! WE'RE ABOUT TO BE CRUSHED TO DEATH!" Lucas winced at Dawn's loud voice.

"Oh, so you didn't finish your performance," Lucas said. Dawn groaned.

"Come on! We need to get out of here!" She grabbed Lucas' hand and held on tightly as they tried to move with the crowd toward the exit. Lucas felt downright scared. Something is going on, but what?

"There we go," Dawn sighed with relief as they head out of the building, away from the falling rocks. "Let's stay here for a moment and see what is going..." Dawn suddenly realized that Lucas wasn't holding her hand anymore she looked around the huge crowd and saw in the very far distance, a red hat that could only be Lucas'. "Lucas!" Dawn yelled. She rushed toward the hat as she continued to clutch Piplup. "Get back here!"

...

Lucas sighed in relief as he looked around. He was far away from all those noise and now he could concentrate better. He slowly closed his eyes and searched deep within his memory of the book he had read years ago. Something about an explosion... something about a diversion... something about a lake...

"Floon?" Lucas snapped awake and found two black beady eyes staring at him.

"Whoa!" Lucas took a step back and found himself face to face with a weird looking purple Pokemon. "Who are you?" Lucas suddenly heard a beeping and looked down to see that it was his Pokedex. He opened it and found the name of the Pokemon in front of him. "Oh, you're a Drifloon. Nice to meet you." Drifloon cocked its head to the side as it watched the strange trainer bow respectively in front of it.

"Drifloon! Come back here!" Lucas looked around and found a little girl with brown hair and a red bow on top came rushing toward where Drifloon was. "You're still injured. I know you want to go back to the wild but please just stay put!"

"Oh this Drifloon... not yours?" Lucas asked confused. The girl looked at him before bursting into tears. "Oh! I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to be rude!" Lucas quickly exclaimed, though he wasn't sure how he was rude.

"No, it's not that. This Drifloon gave us news that my father is in trouble and nobody is going to check up on him." The girl started to cry even louder, making Lucas feel even more awkward.

"In trouble?" Lucas asked. The girl nodded.

"That explosion caused a whole bunch of law enforcements to check up what was wrong. They can't spare anybody to check up the Windworks lab where my dad works," the girl crouched down and continued to sob. Lucas felt confused as to what to do so he crouched down next to the girl and patted her back.

"Umm, if you want, I could check up what's going on," Lucas said softly.

"Re- really?" the girl asked, wiping her eyes.

"Yeah," Lucas smiled, his goofy smile, "You want help right? Let me help you then." The girl immediately gave a weak grin and hugged Lucas.

"Thank you, thank you!"

"Err..." Lucas felt completely uneasy at this unusual gesture, "Yeah..."

"My name is Aura," the girl wiped her eyes, "Drifloon will be able to show you the way to Valley Windworks. Please make sure my dad is okay."

"Of course," Lucas replied, shrugging off Aura as best as he could without looking rude.

"Lucas!" Lucas turned and saw to his discomfort, Dawn charging at him. "What in the world are you doing?!"

"Um, I agreed to go to the Valley Windworks to check up on her dad," Lucas replied uneasily. Dawn glared at Lucas before looking at the girl.

"My name is Aura," the girl explained, "I think my dad is in trouble and I need help." Dawn looked back at Lucas and sighed.

"Very well, but I'm coming with you."

"What? Wait, Dawn, its dangerous-" Lucas tried to explain.

"Even more the reason to go with you," Dawn interrupted, "We're friends and I'm going to make sure that we stick together." And with that she followed Drifloon who was already having a head start. Lucas gaped at her with confusion but hurried off after her. If he had know what was going to happen, Lucas would've never allowed Dawn to come.

...

"You... guys..." Tory felt his heart beating out of control, out of fear, as he looked at the perpetrators and the coordinator who just saved him holding on dearly for his life.

"You missed me?" The orange pigtail hair girl commander giggled as she walked toward Tory. He immediately reacted and took out a Metang. The blue steel/psychic Pokemon created a barrier between the two.

"Get back. Get back. Don't come near me," Tory said warningly. The girl just stared at him and laughed.

"You really think you can take all of us?" The girl giggled and snapped her fingers.

"AHHHHHH.....!" Jeffery screamed as the fingers around his neck crushed harder.

"Are you really that heartless that you'll let your friend die?" the girl asked. Tory faltered and felt silent. Before Tory could make his decision, there was a soft wheezing voice.

"Don't... don't you dare... take me lightly," Jeffery gasped. There was a large red slash appeared in front of the Grunt.

"ARGHHHH!" The grunt fell to the ground, letting go of Jeffery in the process. Jeffery immediately rubbed his swollen neck but didn't stop to rest.

"Scizor... gasp... Double Hit!" Scizor attacked the other Grunt in one hit and charged toward the orange hair girl who summoned out a Pokemon just in time.

CLANG! Scizor's attack hit Bronzong. The normal attack did barely any damage to the steel body. Scizor drew back immediately and steady itself into fighting position.

"Whoops, forgot you have Pokemon," the girl said though she didn't sound too concern.

"You... underestimate... me, you'll regret it," Jeffery growled. The girl laughed again.

"I think you got it all wrong. _You_ are truly underestimating Team Galactic."

**Author's Notes**

And they all live happily ever after. The end. lol.

Well, I must say, things are getting along quite nicely.

Let's thank my reviewers.

...

thank you

**xoxbb**

**Starlight Amethyst**

**Sparky**

**Pikana**

**ololo face** (okay, you posted. So what?)

**grammaguy**

**SynctrainerLucas**

**Phantom shadow mask**

**Emperor Empoleon** (thanks so much. Listen big question, how does Looker interact with the playable character when you first meet him in Jublilife. Give me good details if possible.)

**RWT**

**Ketchum Kid**

**Black Rabbit-Chan**

**Unknown**

**TheSlyFoxOfPeanutButterness**

**Logan**

**jackds2**

**gg121**

**renniegirl  
**

**Suggestion202** (thanks for the suggestion. I will keep that in mind.)

for reviewing.

...

Okay, thank you for reviewing. I'll see you again, hopefully by this next week.

**-JapanDreamer**


	31. I'm No Longer Afraid to Fight

**Disclaimer: This is a disclaimer that states the following: "JapanDreamer does not own Pokemon because her capabilities to create such an idea is beyond her limitation even though this story is good. Therefore to ensure that no one will sue her, she has decided to put up a disclaimer.**

Hi guys! Sorry that this update is a bit late. Today is my LAST DAY OF SCHOOL! A bitter sweet experience... (wahhhh!)

Anyways, this chapter is epic longer than usual because of my awesome free time. lol.

enjoy the chapter!

**Chapter 28:**

"Phew, that was close," Shiki sighed in relief as she looked around. As far as she could tell, all of the coordinators that were in the room managed to get out safely. Most of them were injured. Kenna had a couple of small burnt marks from her Rapidash running, but is being treated at the moment. Lindsay's dress was ripped and she changed into a pair of jeans and a t-shirt. Shiki had a large red welt on her head which was bandaged heavily to prevent the loss of blood.

_But at least they're still alive_, Shiki thought, watching a young five year old girl being bandaged up. Feeling that she was missing something, Shiki continued to scan the room until her eyes landed on one of the coordinator's Pachurisu. Then it hit her.

_FUUTA!_ Shiki looked around and couldn't find him anywhere. She sincerely hoped that he's all right. With his special ability, he should be fine.

"You're right Shiki," Kenna sighed in relief, "I say it was luck that we managed to get out. I thought I was a goner. Strange though, I wonder where Jeffery is." Shiki scanned around the area. Kenna was right; Jeffery was nowhere to be found. "His Scizor is good at flying, so I'm not too worried." Kenna continued to dab the liquid medicine onto her red skin before putting on a bandage.

"HEY! What are you doing?!" Shiki and Kenna turned around and saw one of the girl coordinators being pushed to the ground by some strange guy. He had a weird turquoise bowl cut hair style and strange space clothes that had a huge yellow 'G' symbol on the front. In his hand was the coordinator's Pokeball.

"What do you think I'm doing?" the man sneered, "I'm taking your Pokemon. Call it a fee in order to let you live."

"Hey!" Another coordinator marched up at the strange man, "Give that back to her you geek!" The coordinator shoved the man and took the Pokeball back.

"GEEK?!" The man screamed hysterically, "THIS is the finest and latest up-to-date clothing of this century."

"No," another coordinator said, backing up his friend, "that clothing is the latest up-to-date to be a DORK of this century." There was a huge roar of laughter, but Shiki didn't join in. She didn't like the look on the guy's face. The man's red face was turning redder than a tomato. His fists were clenched with anger.

"YOU LAUGH?!" He snapped his fingers and a huge army of the same version of people like him. The laughter died down a bit. There was tension in the air. "We were the ones who blew up this building and you think we're outdated?! ATTACK!" the man ordered. Immediately, a shower of Pokeballs appeared. Pokemon, from Zubat to Glameow, appeared and attack the coordinators. Shiki flinched. This group destroyed the Pokemon Contest just so that they could steal Pokemon?! Didn't they consider the danger they've put the people in?!

"AHHHHHH!" The coordinators yelled trying to get back from the Scratch and Poison Sting, Peck, and other attacks the Pokemon were relasing. Chaos continued once more. Shiki gasped. This was outrageous behavior. This strange group's Pokemon were even attacking civilians who can't fight back.

"YOU'VE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!" Lindsay yelled at this panic crisis, "Finneon Water Gun!" The jet of water blasted at a Wrumple. "Come on!" Lindsay called out, "We're not just coordinators. We're trainers! So stop running like a bunch of sissy girls and fight." Without hesitation, Kenna immediately joined the battle.

"Rapidash! Stomp!" Kenna yelled. The hooves slammed into Stunky into the ground, causing it to crack under pressure.

"Delcatty! Iron Tail!" Shiki yelled. Delcatty's attack slashed Glameow's face, causing it to fall back. Immediately the other coordinators started to fight back.

"Yeah! We can't let these geeks beat us and steal our Pokemon! Wartotle Bubble Beam!"

"We need to protect the people. Sandslash Poison Sting!"

"How dare you try to ruin our Pokemon Contest! Jigglypuff Double Slap!"  
"Keep everybody healthy! Blissey Softboiled!" Pokemon were fighting Pokemon. Huge massive confusion continued as everybody fought. People had a hard time fighting without hurting others.

"Shiki look out!" A voice called out. Shiki barely managed to dodge a Rock Throw that was aimed for a Murkrow. Shiki turned around and to her huge relief saw Fuuta and Pachurisu coming towards her.

"Fuuta!" Shiki sighed, "I'm so glad you're okay!"

"Yeah, well, don't worry about it," Fuuta said, "Let's focus on stopping these guys. Pachurisu Quick Attack!" Pachurisu slammed into a Wrumple, causing it to immediately faint. "We can't do wide range attacks since it might hurt others. Tell everybody to use direct attacks. That way we can increase the damage done but reduce the chance of hurting others."

"All right," Shiki nodded, "I'll see if someone has a Psychic Pokemon to relay the message to everyone." She hurried off as Fuuta continued to fight. He was in deep thought as he looked at the battle. Even though he has never seen this group of people in his life, they look very familiar.

_Who are these people?_

...

"Dawn, can you slow down?" Lucas asked miserably. The sun was creating intense heat and Lucas wanted to rest a bit.

"We can't!" Dawn snapped, "Drifloon is still moving and our only guide. Plus didn't you promise the girl that you'll check on her father?"

"I know," Lucas said, "But..." Something was wrong. Lucas felt it in his gut. Each step he took seemed to scream at him to turn back. He didn't want to admit it but he was scared.

"Stop being a baby and let's go. Knowing the girl, her father is just probably working overtime and forgot to contact her." Dawn continued, clearly undisturbed or worried. Lucas continued to trudge forward, looking back a couple of times. Praying that he was wrong as usual, Lucas took a deep breath and ignored his gut feelings.

...

"Scizor Night Slash!" Jeffery yelled. His red pincer Pokemon's claws was covered in a black substance and swiped down on the Bronzong. The steel Pokemon didn't even flinch at Scizor's attack but Jeffery wasn't finish.

"Metang, Hyper Beam!" Before Bronzong could defend itself, a large blast of orange energy made a direct hit on it. Unfortunatly, the attack didn't seem to do a single damage to it as well.

"Have you forgotten Tory?" the girl giggled, climbing on to her steel Pokemon, "My Bronzong isn't going to be damaged by such a weak attack and now you're wide open! Bronzong, use Earthquake!" Bronzong slammed to the ground with such heavy force, causing Jeffery, Tory, and their Pokemon stumbled down.

"Metang, use Magnet Rise!" Tory yelled, climbing on to his Pokemon as well. The blue steel Pokemon slowly rise into the air like a hovering spaceship.

"Scizor, take flight now!" Jeffery yelled and Scizor grabbed on to him and flew to the air.

"Whoo, smart," the girl grinned, "Too bad it ends now! Imprison!"

"Ahhhh!" Jeffery and Tory yelled as the pink band tighten around them and their Pokemon.

"Well, that finish this mission," the girl grinned at the two boys, "Hold tight now." She grabbed her small communicator that looks like a compact mirror with the same 'G' symbol that everyone else has. "This is Coooommmmander Venus reporting," the girl giggled.

"You idiot! You're not a commander yet, wanna-be," the voice shouted from the other side, "Stop acting like an idiot and get out of there."

"All right Saturn," the girl stuck her tongue out at the communicator, "Geez you sound exactly like Commander Mars." Tory froze. Did this girl said... _Mars_?

"Wait, why are you calling Mars commander and not me?!"  
"Because she is way cooler than you are," Venus replied, sticking out her tongue. Jeffery struggled against the psychic chains, ignoring everything. They needed to get out. "Well, I'll send over the present and a free gift along with it. See you later Saturn."

"Now wait a -" Venus hung up before Saturn could finish.

"Well then," Venus said, looking at the two trainers, "Let's get going, shall we?"

...

"Wow!" Lucas gasped. He was standing at an entire field with very few trees scattered around. Large gusts of wind blew that Lucas and Dawn both had to hold tightly to their hats. The biggest things were the large white windmills; the propellers were moving in large, lazy circles. Drifloon moved at a faster pace now that there was wind and quickly floated to the white building in the middle of the vast grassland.

"Amazing," Dawn said, "the wind here is so strong that it can produce electricity. Drifloon must like it here because of it."

"Wow," Lucas repeated, this time to Dawn, "You're a genius." Dawn couldn't help blushing.

"Well, seeing it is way better than reading about it though," Dawn responded, "Come on, let's hurry up and find the professor." Dawn grabbed Lucas' hand and literally ran down the hill into the small valley.

Drifloon was humming happily to itself as it landed gently next to the road, about a half of a mile away from the door. Dawn and Lucas came trudging down the road at a much slower pace.

"Well, we're here," Dawn sighed, "So let's go-"

"Dawn! Look out!" Lucas yelled, alert all of a sudden. Surprised at Lucas' sudden outburst, Dawn didn't managed to dodge properly from the Slash attack.

"OUCH!" Dawn gritted her teeth and noticed a large fat Purugly looking haughtily at her. Lucas noticed that Drifloon looked immensely scared for some reason and hid behind Lucas. "That Pokemon! Get it Piplup!" Piplup popped out and immediately sent a Bubble attack at the Purugly. Dawn inspected her clothes and noticed the attack only ripped her dress.

"Well, well, well, looks like I got a couple of intruders." Dawn looked up and noticed a strange red hair lady with a weird space skirt and long boots to go with it. Now that she thought about it, Dawn realized that the clothes were similar to the man with the turquoise hair whom they bump into just a day or two ago. "Since I couldn't join in the fun to blow up the Pokemon Contest, I'll just play with you. Purugly Fake Out!" The cat Pokemon slammed into Piplup, causing it to flinch.

"Ah, Piplup!" Dawn exclaimed, "Use Bubble again!" Piplup sent out another small clump of bubbles but Purugly just swatted them away.

"Hahahahaha," the lady laughed as though what she had just saw was the funniest thing she had ever saw, "your Piplup is so weak that it can't even do a single damage?!" Piplup became infuriated and immediately started to attack without hesitation. Purugly didn't even flinched and sent out a Body Slam attack.

"Piplup NO!" Dawn returned her Pokemon before it could be hurt anymore.

"Listen kid," the lady said, "you can't beat Mars here. You shouldn't even be here for all I know. How did you get here by the way?" Her eyes immediately fell upon on the boy next to the girl. There was a small purple balloon looking Pokemon trying its best to hide. Then it hit her. "Oh ho! That little Drifloon managed to live! Congrats on getting here but I'm going to finish this off. Purugly-!"

"Turtwig Razor Leaf!" A storm of green leaves hit Purugly directly at its chest.

"What the-?" Mars suddenly noticed the boy with his little Turtwig out. The boy's eyes were filled with immense fear but he was holding his ground.

"My, my, my," Mars said, grinning, "You wish to battle against me? Your friend here can't even do a single damage on my Pokemon." Lucas stared back. His mind was screaming for him to retreat but after seeing Dawn almost get hurt like that and how she tried to defend the both of them, Lucas' heart was telling him to fight back.

"I... I won't run away!"

**Author's Notes**

Well, that was a lame way to end a chapter. lol.

Okay, first off, let's celebrate for this moment because chapters will for now on be about four pages, if not longer.

Second, let's thank my reviewers for putting up with short updates.

...

thank you

**dark5523**

**SynctrainerLucas**

**xoxbb**

**KetchumKid**

**Aiko** (no internet! T.T Well have fun and I hope to hear from you when you get back!)

**SsX-77**

**Sparky**

**gg121**

**RWT**

**Pikana**

**Emperor Empoleon **(Thank you so much for your info! Okay another question, what happens at the Valley Windworks (Charon guy more specifically)? I want to make sure I got some details correct!.

T**heSlyFoxofPeanutButterness**

**Jarkes **(could you give me a bit of an explanation of your OC and the related info? I'll see if I can incorporated it to the story. (I haven't gotten that detail as to what will happen later.))

**renniegirl**

**Kingston**

**Black Rabbit-Chan**

**HiHipokegirl**

**Eevee-14**

...

thank you all. remember that updates will be faster and longer. If we can make it to 500, I'll have a huge extra special with the OCs! (Shhhh, its a secret!)

anyways, see you in the next chapter.

**-JapanDreamer**


	32. New Danger, Old Friends

**Disclaimer: In light of this discussion, I do not own Pokemon.**

Hey guys! Sorry for the lateness, I've been having trouble writing this chapter for some reason. But don't worry, this chapter is about seven pages. Yes, I know, a huge change. I tried humor but I seemed to fail at it.

Well, I can't believe it but we're almost to 500 reviews! I'm so going to have a virtual party when we get there! lol. Keep it up folks!

Anyways, enjoy the chapter!

**Chapter 29:**

"Purugly! Fury Swipes!" the red hair commander ordered. Her Pokemon came charging at Turtwig with such ferocity.

"Turtwig, Withdraw!" The little turtle hid in his shell just in time before Purugly started slashing against Turtwig's shell. Despite Turtwig's high defense, the cat Pokemon attacked with such ease, damaging Turtwing easily. It panted heavily, covered with bruises and scratches. Lucas frowned. He hasn't trained his Turtwig a lot. If he wanted to defeat this person, Lucas has to do it quickly. "Use Razor Leaf!"

Turtwig sent out another stream of green leaves at the enemy. Puruguly simply swat them away like play toys. Lucas gaped with horror at the limp leaves while the commander laughed.

"Seriously, you can't defeat my Purugly. Not at that pitiful level. Surely you have something better?" Mars yawned as she watched the boy, clearly in a dilemma.

"Lucas," Dawn said, "She's right. Turtwig can't continue like this anymore." Lucas gritted his teeth. His Pokemon weren't trained to battle, but it looks like he has no choice but to be on the defensive side.

"Turtwig return!" Lucas shouted, sending the injured Pokemon back into its Pokeball, "Go Muchlax!" The fat Pokemon popped out, looking entirely confused at the scene it was in. Mars stared at the wide eye creature before laughing.

"Are you serious?!" She asked between laughs. Lucas didn't hesitate at all. He grabbed his Pokedex and after choosing the best move, Lucas ordered Muchlax to attack.

"Muchlax Tackle!" The lazy Pokemon stared a couple of moments into space before charging sluggishly at Purugly. The cat Pokemon was surprise at this move and how weak it was. It landed a Slash attack to knock back the Pokemon toward Lucas.

"Seriously," Mars said, sounding incredibly depressed, "Do you have any fighting skills?" Dawn couldn't help but sigh in her head as well. Lucas was obviously not trained to fight. Then again, his personality isn't the type to get into fights in the first place.

"Lucas! This is pointless! Let's get out of here while we still can," Dawn yelled. Mars couldn't help but laugh at this girl's statement.

"What makes you think I'll let you guys go that easily?" Mars stated. It wasn't a question. Lucas stared at Dawn with great sadness. He seriously didn't want to fight anymore, but now wasn't the time to think of his own needs.

"That woman is right, Dawn. We have no choice but to fight back," Lucas said. He turned his attention back to the strange lady.

"Huh?! Woman?! That's not my name you idiot!" Mars yelled, clearly insulted by the name, "Its Mars, Commander Mars who is going to beat you up! Go Purugly! Slash again!" Purugly charged toward the lazy Muchlax who finally seemed to grasp the tense situation. It cowered under its arms just as the cat Pokemon leapt up to strike from the air.

"Muchlax dodge!" Lucas yelled. He rushed toward Muchlax and pulled it out in time and Purugly hit Lucas instead. "AHHHH!" His shirt was ripped and blood was seeping out slowly and then faster and faster. Muchlax looked horrified at the event and pushed its own hand against the wounds to slow them down. He looked frantically at Dawn who seemed to be lost of words.

"Lucas!" Dawn yelled, rushing towards him. She took out her Pokeball and summoned out her Aipom. "Aipom, Sand Attack!" Aipom grabbed a handful of dirt from the side of the road and scattered it on Purugly's face.

The cat hissed and rubbed its eyes frantically. Aipom didn't hesitate to continue the attack. Dawn immediately rolled Lucas to see his face which was slightly pale. He breathed heavily as he tried to get back up.

"Don't move," Dawn ordered, pushing Lucas back down. Muchlax looked wildly at the battle with Aipom and Purugly. Aipom was holding on, but because of the strength difference, sooner or later. It'll be all over for them.

Despite his small mind, Muchlax tried to think as best as possible. It was not fit for battle at all. Unless there is another Pokemon that can fight, then there is nothing to do but submit defeat. Turtwig, Piplup, and soon to be Aipom can't continue any longer. Then it hit Muchlax. There was a Pokemon that wanted to fight a lot. So much that even Lucas has difficulty controlling it... Without wasting time, Muchlax dived into the bag and dig out what it was looking for.

...

"Let us go you brat!" Jeffery yelled as he continued to struggle in his imprisonment. His Scizor was also struggling the same way as its trainer. Tory, however, seem to be nonchalant. He was in deep thought as though he was trying to figure out something out... remember something...

Venus was riding on her Bronzong with relative ease and seem to be quite relax as she watch her prisoners struggle. If this is how work is always like, then becoming a commander is so easy.

"Yeah, like as if," Venus said, sticking out her tounge, "And I'm not a brat! I'm a legal adult!" Jeffery gaped at the short girl.

"You're only what? 15?" The girl flinched at the question and then immediately flared up.

"I'M 18 STUPID! How dare you call me a shrimp?!" Venus yelled, waving her arms in frustration, with an angry look on her face that said – How dare you mock my age with my height?! Jeffery stared at her with a disbelief look on his face. This girl didn't even _act_ like an 18 year old. She was just under five feet about and her round face gave her a really child look.

"Uh, that's not really consider as a legal adult, and I never said that you were a shrimp," Jeffery said, despite his disbelief. Venus didn't listen to him and continue to fume with anger.

"So what if I'm short?! Do you have a problem with shortness?! HUH?! For your information, I managed to grow two inches this past year, and I'm still older than the both of you!" Venus retorted back. Jeffery looked at Tory who was also in disbelief. "ARGH! As soon as I hand you over, I'm going to make sure you guys understand my true wrath!"

"Hold on a minute, what's going on here?" A voice cried out. Jeffery and Tory turned their head around and to their surprise, Cynthia appeared on her Garchomp. She got off with relative ease, looking clearly suspicious at the situation.

"Ohhhhh, not good," Venus muttered to herself. Jeffery turned bright red at Cynthia. He could've sworn that there was a light emitting from her and Garchomp. Tory immediately took this moment to struggle for his Pokeball.

Cynthia's grey eyes looked over at the two hostages that the girl was holding before speaking. "What are you doing? Release those two."  
"Uh... no," Venus replied, sticking out her tongue, "It took a long time to get them, so there is no way you're having them for free." Venus motioned her Bronzong to face Cynthia.

Cynthia eyed the Bronzong before saying, "You really don't want to battle me. I'm not in the mood."

"Whatever you old lady," Venus retorted. Cynthia stared at Venus with a bit of surprise but before she could say anything, Jeffery retorted back first.

"How dare you make fun of Cynthia!" Jeffery yelled, flared with anger by Venus' lack of manners. Venus looked at Jeffery with a smug look.

"Awww, did I hurt your girlfriend's feelings?" Jeffery turned bright red at this statement. Cynthia stared at Venus and Jeffery, wondering what the two were talking about since she was far away. Venus giggled at Jeffery's embarrassed look but immediately turned to Cynthia. "Guess I got to get to work again. Bronzong use Earthquake!"

"Garchomp, Dragon Rush!" Cynthia cried out. Garchomp was surrounded in a pink veil and slammed onto Bronzong with incredible force. Immediately the imprisoned chains around Jeffery and Tory disappeared, causing them to both fall to the ground.

"Whoa, Scizor! A little help here!" Jeffery called. Scizor grabbed its trainer and brought Jeffery toward Cynthia, away from Bronzong.

"Ouch," Tory muttered as he crashed to the ground, but he immediately got up on his Metang and hurried next to Cynthia as well.

"Th-thank you so m-much!" Jeffery said, completely overwhelm of the fact that he was saved by his idol. Tory also gave a polite bow to show his gratitude. Cynthia gave a small smile and nod before she turned to Venus who seemed to be still in shock at what had just happen.

"You guys get going," Cynthia said, "Send the police while you're at it. I'm going to hold her off."

"Wait hold on!" Jeffery protested, "I think its best if there are more of us fighting. That girl managed to take two people." Cynthia shook her head. Her gray eyes, once filled with kindness and mischief andnow filled with anger and alertness were still on the girl.

"I don't know what's going on, but that girl obviously wanted you guys hostage. The sooner you guys get to a safe place, the better." Jeffery wanted to argue a bit longer, but Tory grabbed Jeffery's shoulder and placed him on Tory's Metang.

"Wait!" Jeffery yelled, but Metang already hovered out of the area. Cynthia sighed in relief. Now she can concentrate on fighting serious.

Venus gaped at the situation she was in. She failed to keep the hostage and on top of that she lost to an old lady...

"Wahhhhhhh," Venus wailed, "Saturn is going to kill me!" She buried her face in her hands, trying very hard not to show the tears. Cynthia felt a bit uncomfortable at the situation, but she held her guard.

"Give it up," Cynthia said, "My Pokemon are not to be take lightly. I suggest you surrender yourself right now." Venus glared back, looking quite venomous.

"I'm not going to surrender old lady! I've worked too hard for this!" Venus yelled, ready to fight, "Go Mismagius!"

...

Back at Valley Windworks, Mars stared at the two young trainers. Although all she needed to do was summon another Pokemon and finish this off, Mars found herself holding back for some reason. Her voice was ready to say the word to finish the two trainers off, but something about the scene was making her mind go completely blank.

"It's just a scratch," Lucas tried to object as he got up, "I need to fight back." Dawn saw Lucas' struggled face.

"Shut up!" Dawn yelled, causing Lucas to fall silent, scared, "You're my friend. I'm not going to let you risk your life already!"

Life... friend... Mars found her vision turning misty as visions started to swallow her up once again...

...

"_Sis! Sis!" the young four year old boy yelled, smiling as he ran. The strong wind whipped his brown hair that blended in perfectly with the dusty road he was running down. His tanned skin was covered with sunscreen, and he was wearing a pair of jeans and a yellow t-shirt with an Eevee on it._

_The sun was shining down brightly against the painted white clouds on the blue sky. There were flocks of Pidgey moving at great speed. Long brown fence pickets ran along the side of the road. Behind the fence were stalks of sunflowers that shimmered bright yellow against the sun. A couple of Murkrows were perched on large trees, clearly waiting for night fall. Following behind the boy was a little girl, about 12 years old._

_"Slow down!" The sister yelled back. Her long red ponytail hair swung back and forth. Her light pink summer style dress billowed in the wind and her straw hat was dangerously going to be swept away by the wind. "You're going to fall!" As if to prove her point, the little boy immediately came crashing down on the road_. _Huge amounts of dust kicked up and the little boy's sandals flew up as though it sprouted wings before landing on the boy's head._

_"Owwww!" the boy whimpered. The girl sighed as she carefully caught up and crouched down next to her brother. Her brother had a small gash on his forehead where the sandals hit him and a couple of bruises on his arms._

_"What am I going to do with you?" the girl sighed as she pulled her brother up. "You're more trouble than trying to feed mom's slop to a herd of Tauros."_

_"Ehehehe," the boy grinned sheepishly at the joke, "I'm sorry. I won't do that again." The girl rolled her eyes, but couldn't help smiling._

_"Whatever," the girl helped her brother up and gave him a piggy back ride, "Come on, I'll walk for us."_

_"Yay!" the little brother cried out happily, "Go, go, go!" The boy's sister couldn't help but laugh as she raced down the road, the wind blasting in their face._

...

Mars snapped back awake, taken aback by the strange visions she just saw. She have never seen them before in her life, yet... they were familiar. Suddenly pain shot back into her head. The boy was trying to get up again even though the girl was pulling him back down. That little Muchlax was ignoring the two and was digging into the boy's backpack for some reason...

"Ahhhh!" Mars placed her hands on her head as the electrical pains stabbed everywhere. The strange vision she had was fading away, back to nothing. Finally, the feeling Mars had that made her stop fighting was gone. Now the desire to finish things off return. "I'm going to finish you guys off! Purugly, get rid of that Aipom!"

Purugly, relieved that its trainer is acting normal again, used Faint Attack, which managed to hit and finish off Aipom. The poor Pokemon flew and landed next to Dawn.

"Aipom!" Dawn cried, grabbing it to check if it is okay.

"Give it up kiddo," Mars said, grimly, "When it comes to battling, no one can defeat me."

Dawn felt the tears filling up in her eyes. She should've never been so impatient about helping out. She should've realized that there was something wrong when the girl mentioned that her father hasn't return and nobody could check up. Why did she have to be so... so stupid at a time like this?

Drifloon, watching this scene, felt uneasy. It immediately tried to dry Dawn's tears. Dawn hiccupped before bursting out crying again. Drifloon looked frantically around and noticed Lucas getting up slowly. Drifloon hurried next to the boy and turned to face Purugly. Mars noticed this sudden change of moment and couldn't help but smile.

"Do you actually want to fight and lose again?" Drifloon flinched at the question, but held its ground. The boy was afraid, but he didn't back down the challenge. So, Drifloon has no excuse not to fight back as well.

"You're not going to hurt Dawn," Lucas said weakly but in a firm tone. Dawn couldn't take this anymore. Her friend was about to risk his life and all she could do was stand and watch.

"Stop!" Dawn yelled, "Please let us go! We didn't come here to fight!" Mars looked at Dawn. There was no pity in the red hair commander's eyes.

"Sorry, but orders come before plea bargain. Purugly Night Slash that kid!" The cat charged at Lucas with its darkened claws.

"NO!" Dawn yelled.

"Shinxxxxx!!!" A sudden blast of blue electricity slammed into Purugly, causing it to fall back, paralyzed.

"What the-?" Mars gasped and noticed the blue and black lion, glaring at Mars with ferocious intensity. Next to the Pokemon was Muchlax and in its hand was an open Pokeball.

_That kid had another Pokemon_! Mars gritted her teeth, frustrated by the set back. The attack was strong compare to the other Pokemon Purugly encountered. Meanwhile, Lucas looked taken aback at Shinx appearance, let alone its desire to protect him.

"Shinx!" Lucas cried happily, reaching out to pet the Pokemon in gratitude.

CHOMP! Shinx replied by gnawing on Lucas' hand.

"Ouch," Lucas whimpered again. When Lucas tried to pull back, Shinx let go immediately and faced the Purugly. Without waiting for order, Shinx sent out another Spark attack. Mars quickly counter before the Spark could hit her Pokemon.

"Purugly! Shadow Claw!" Mar's Purugly's front left leg was covered with a dark like substance as it slashed across Shinx's attack. The force caused an explosion, resulting in a blown away Shinx, Drifloon, and Purugly.

Drifloon managed to get back up and used a strong Gust attack on Purugly. Completely mobilized, by the small wind tornado, Purugly couldn't do anything but stand its ground. Using this to its advantage, Shinx immediately sent yet another Spark attack. This time the attack managed to hit Purugly and the static caused it to immediately faint.

"NO!" Mars yelled, "Impossible!" Lucas gasped. They managed to defeat the lady's Pokemon!

"Great job Shinx and you too Drifloon!" Lucas smiled, reaching out to congratulate both Pokemon. Drifloon blushed red as Lucas petted it.

CHOMP!

"Ouch, not again," Lucas whimpered. Shinx was gnawing Lucas' hand, leaving deep bite marks. Dawn couldn't help but giggle. Lucas immediately heard the laugh and look around to smile at Dawn. "Are you okay?" Dawn nodded.

"I'm feeling a lot better now. Thank goodness you're safe." Dawn walked over to Lucas and gave him a hug.

If Dawn had noticed Lucas' face, she would've seen that it was quite red from embarrassment. Mars felt her blood boiling. She was defeated by a... a kid! She realized that from now on, she'll need to play seriously.

"Don't celebrate yet! You seem to assume that I have only one Pokemon!" Lucas, Shinx, Dawn, Muchlax, and Drifloon looked around and before any of them could react. A strong bolt of lightning, much stronger than Shinx's, slammed to the ground where they all were.

Dawn was blown back with Muchlax and Drifloon while Lucas was blown back with Shinx. Lucas managed to grab on to Shinx and held it in his arms. Slowly hovering above Mars was a strange oval gray shape machine with one red eye. Magnets were connected to it.

"A Magnezone!" Dawn gasped as she took out her Pokedex. Mars grinned toward Dawn.

"Oh, you're the smart one of this little group huh? Well, I'm done playing now, so first I'm going to get rid of that little Shinx." Shinx immediately jumped out of Lucas' arms and charged angrily, yet confidently, toward the new Pokemon.

"Wait! Shinx!" Lucas yelled, but it was too late. Magnezone sent out a Discharge. The strong electrical attack flew everywhere. Shinx took a full blast and immediately fell back.

"Kyaa!" Dawn yelled, pushing Muchlax and Drifloon back as far as possible. Lucas, ignoring the electrical attacks, ran toward Shinx. Mars, unable to control her anger, pointed at Lucas.

"Magnezone! Finish that kid!" Lucas immediately grabbed Shinx and tried his best to run away, but Magnezone already used a Lock-On and started to charge up for a Zap Cannon attack. Lucas tripped over a rock and immediately fell to the ground. He hit the rock on his head and fell unconscious. Unable to move now, Lucas was in the firing zone and the attack blasted right at him.

"LUCAS!" Dawn screamed. But screaming wasn't going help. There was nothing that could stop the attack.

"Monferno Flame Wheel!" A sudden fiery ball came past Lucas and Shinx and hit the Magnezone. The steel type Pokemon faltered back. Mars flinched in surprise and before she could figure out what was going out, the voice cried out yet another attack. "Monferno, use Flame Wheel again!" The fiery ball came back and attacked the slow moving Magnezone. Magnezone fell to the ground in exhaustion. The fiery ball slowly disappeared, revealing the fire type monkey.

"Wha-? Who?" Dawn sputtered, but before she could say anymore. A shadow dropped from the sky. Dawn looked up and saw a Staravia, landing on the shoulder of the person who just saved their life. The person turned around to look at Dawn.

"Hey Dawn, did you miss me?" Dawn stared a moment, not believing what she was seeing.

"Damion!" Dawn gasped in recognition.

Damion grinned, pleased at the look of relief on her face. "The hero always shows up last."

**Author's Notes**

An old friend came back!

I'm completely exhuasted writing. I'll probably update in a week or so. (Hopefully)

Okay, let's thank my reviewers! I'll give a small note of thanks to those who I can't PM to just so no one will feel left behind. XD

...

thank you

**Starlight Amethyst**

**Phantom shadow mask**

**xoxbb**

**Dawn Pokelove** (awww, thanks for the compliment)

**SsX-77**

**dark5523**

**SynctrainerLucas**

**gg121 **(thanks for the review!)

**RWT**

**Ketchum Kid**

**Cooler**

**pichucherrimteam **(can I call you pct? or is that too short?)

**Pikana**

**Emperor Empoleon (**okay here's a suggestion, the name of these reviews will be... Super Special Awesome EE (Emperor Empoleon) News! SSAEE for short. lol. Okay, I feel guilty asking questions after questions, but does anything happen in Oreburgh town that is different from the DP game?)

**Sparky**

**grammaguy**

**Black Rabbit-Chan**

**Kingston **(cheerio to you too! I love the cereal!)

I**nWithTheRush**

**Jarkes **(hmmm, not a bad idea. But is Seth older than Lucas in the future? And if so, what is his age in the 'present'?)

for reviewing.

...

Well, that's it for me. Lets see if we can break 500 in this chapter.

See you soon!

**-JapanDreamer**


	33. Hey! Look out! Trouble Ahead

**Disclaimer: This update is brought to you by the DISCLAIMER. Our motto is "I do not own Pokemon".**

Okay first off, you guys must be like "WOW! JD UPDATED FAST!" lol. yeah, this is what I mean by a lot of extra free time during the summer.

Anyways, we're going to conclude this part in this chapter so we can get to some SERIOUS stuff.

enjoy!

**Chapter 30:**

Shiki gasped in relief as she looked at the crowd. The police force has managed to arrest some of these bizarre people, the other escape. So far from what she can tell, everyone is alive. Some are heavily injured and were immediately taken to the hospital while others managed to survive by bandaging themselves from first aid kit helpers. Shiki had both of her arms and knee bandaged tightly. Her forehead had a bandaged on it as well.

"Fuuta!" Shiki called out when she saw Fuuta was finished being taken care of. His left eye was wrapped with white bandages and he was holding crutches. Pachurisu was lying on Fuuta's shoulder. It had bandages going around its chest. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, that stupid Scratch attack is certainly going to limit my vision and I can't walk that easily but other than that, I'm good. How about you?"

"Well, deep cuts but they'll be fine," Shiki shrugged. She helped Fuuta lay down next to a tree. "By the way, where's Lucas? I haven't seen him. Wasn't he with you?"

"Yeah, but we got split," Fuuta sighed as Pachurisu dropped down and landed on the grass before falling asleep. "In fact, I don't even know where he is." Fuuta scanned the area as if he hoped he could find Lucas in the overcrowded field.

"Don't worry," Shiki said, "He should be fine. Listen stay here. I'm going to see if everybody else is okay." She hurried off, leaving an exhausted Fuuta.

Sigh, Fuuta thought, Who were those people?

You have a feeling that you saw them before? Pachurisu asked.

Yeah, but... I can't think of where... Fuuta closed his eyes as he allowed his memories swirled in his head. He was glad no one else could see what he was thinking. It must be weird to have some person inside your –

Fuuta suddenly sat up. He remembered where he saw these people! He couldn't believe it. There was something definitely fishy going on...

_What's the matter?_ Pachurisu asked.

_Nothing,_ Fuuta said absentminded. The image of Lucas swirled in Fuuta's mind.

...

"Let me go!" Jeffery yelled. Tory didn't listen and dropped Jeffery down next to the police station. "Hey! What are you doing?!"  
"I need you to tell what happened to the cops."

"Why me?" Jeffery asked suspiciously. Tory looked around but didn't say anything.

"Please, a favor. Those guys are after me. I need to get out before they catch me."  
"Whoa!" Jeffery looked surprise, "Those guys want you?!" Tory nodded and as Jeffery thought about it, it does make sense. How that girl know Tory's name, how the girl called and said the job was done...

"I can't go to the cops yet," Tory explained, "I need to do something. Please." Tory's eyes were filled with a desperate look. Jeffery sighed and shook his head.

"Fine," Jeffery said, "Get out of here and stay alive." Tory looked relieve before he ordered his Metang to get out.

"Thank you very much."

...

"This is pointless," Cynthia said as she once again knocked down Venus' Pokemon. "You're losing and you know that." Venus replied with a snare. She couldn't lose. Not to this... old woman.

"I...I'm not done yet! I still got a secret weapon!" Venus took out her final Pokeball when the communicator chirped. Growling she picked it up. "Yeah what?"

Cynthia heard a faint humming sound and looked around. She noticed in the sky that there was a helicopter coming by. Was it help? The girl continue to listen through the communicator. "WHAT?! Already?! Well, they-. But- FINE!" Venus hung up the phone and looked back at Cynthia. "You're lucky that I have to pull out but just you wait, I got my eyes on you the next time we meet."

"Hold on," Cynthia said, "You're not getting away. Garchomp!" Suddenly the helicopter came at full force and immediately started dropping gas bombs. The large black helicopter was inscribed with a G symbol many of the same grunts that Cynthia saw earlier looked out from the door.

"Too bad," Venus stuck out her tongue as Cynthia and her Pokemon coughed. "I'll be going now so let's say we catch up where we left off next time." A ladder from the flying vehicle came down and Venus grabbed hold of it. "Ciao!"

"Hold it! Garchomp! Use Dragon Rush!" Garchomp shot into the air and toward the helicopter but before it could hit it, Garchomp struck a strong barrier and came crashing back down. "NO!" Cynthia rushed to her injured Pokemon and watched the helicopter become smaller and smaller into the distance.

Cynthia gritted her teeth as she remember that girl's face. They definitely will see each other again.

...

Tory watched from his Metang who was floating above the trees close to where Cynthia battled that Venus girl. He looked through his binoculars and noticed the helicopter moving away.

"Let's go." Tory and Metang slowly followed the helicopter.

...

"Damion! When did you get back?!" Dawn gaped.

"Just a while ago," Damion grinned, "A little girl told me that you guys were here so I came over. Good thing that I managed to get here in time." He looked over at Lucas and the small fainted Shinx (_Must be his new Pokemon_) and wondered why the guy was still down. "What happen to Lucas?"

"Fainted," Dawn said grimly. Damion couldn't help but laugh inside. That sounded so like Lucas.

"Well, then, it looks like I'm the one who will have to save us all." Damion turned to face the red hair looking commander. "Who is this lady?"

"I don't know," Dawn whispered, "But she is really strong so be careful." Damion grinned.

"Trust me, I am a lot stronger than before."

Mars felt immediately angry again. Why were there always bad surprises in this mission? She was going to get in so much trouble if she doesn't finish this off.

"Kid, I'm sick and tired of dealing with you guys, so this time I'm going full out."

"Ha!" Damion grinned, "I like to see you try."

"Don't push my button!" Mars yelled, "Magezone! Discharge on that kid!" Magnezone immediately started charging up electricity and aimed at Lucas who was slowly coming around.

"Huh?" Lucas muttered and just seemed to realize what was going on.

"LUCAS!" Dawn yelled, but Damion was already on the move.

"Staravia Double Team!" Staravia flew up and immediately four replicates of it appeared before Magnezone. Magnezone was startled at the duplicating targets and when it fired it hit one of the illusions and missed.

"Ha! Missed!" Damion grinned happily, "Monferno! Finish it off with Mach Punch!" Monferno immediately sped up and slammed its fighting move on the steel and electric Pokemon. The Magnezone, weakened by the fire and fight moves, slowly collapsed to the ground.

"NO!" Mars hissed, returning her Pokemon, "This wasn't supposed to happen!" She slammed her fist to the ground. Spidery cracks formed from the ground.

"Ha!" Damion grinned, "In your face! So why don't you admit defeat and surrender yourself?" Mars stared at Damion and hissed.

"YOU dare belittle me?!" Mars screamed, "We are trying to make a world a better place. You see that the awful crimes and destructions that this place is forming?! WE need to do something about it! Us four commanders will make the world better for all and you're being the bad guy and trying to stop our plan!"

Damion, obviously unable to understand any of the big words, stared confused at Mars. However, Dawn frowned as she went over what the woman said. Better world?

"Psh, Mars, you just got defeated by a little boy." A wheezy voice said. Dawn and Damion looked around and noticed that there was a person behind Mars. He was wearing a white scientist coat and underneath, he was wearing a black jumpsuit with the same 'G' symbol like Mars had on her strange dress. His gray hair was in two thick lines on the front and middle of his bald head and the hair connected together at the back.

Dawn almost recoiled from surprise. There were more people in charge. She looked at Damion who looked prepare to fight still. His Staravia and Monferno were already ready to fight. Damion gave a 'Go for it' nod and Dawn rushed over as Lucas who was still holding tightly on Shinx. Muchlax and Drifloon looked wildly around at each other and hesitated before rushing over with Dawn as well.

"Lucas, are you okay." Dawn was shock to find Lucas in a shaken state. It was just like yesterday when they met that weird turquoise hair man, only this time, it was a lot worse. Lucas' eyes were glazed over and his breathing was heavier. "Lucas!" Dawn whispered fiercely. She slapped hard across his face. Finally, Lucas' eyes snapped out of it. His eyes returned to the normal gray that Dawn knew – confused and dimwitted looking.

"Huh?" Lucas looked around confused as if he just realized what's going on, "Dawn, are you okay?"

"Yeah," Dawn said, through tears, "Oh gosh, I thought you were going to..." Dawn couldn't say anymore. Damion looked very uncomfortable over at the two. He didn't like how Lucas was getting close to Dawn. Really close.

"Shut up Charon." Mars gritted her teeth, "Like YOU can do any better." She spat at the ground near Charon's feet.

"Please," Charon said, grinning, "The boss actually recognizes me for my intelligence, you're suppose to do your job by getting rid of intruders. Besides, we have enough energy. We don't need to deal with these kids anymore, or are you too embarrass to deal with the boss?"

"Shut up!" Mars snapped. Dawn frowned. Despite this man's uninterested look at the three of them, Dawn couldn't help but feel suspicious. These people were here for the electrical power? And what was this stuff about the boss? Apparently these weren't the ones in total power.

"Let's go," Charon remarked, "The distraction at Floaroma Town is almost finish. The cops should be coming here now."

"Fine, whatever." Mars took out a Pokeball and summoned out two Golbat. Both of the Pokemon grabbed the two commanders and lifted them off into the air.

"HEY!" Damion yelled, "You running?!" Mars stared at him, a flash of annoyance appeared but she grinned. She snapped her finger and immediately, both Golbat started to breath out a Haze attack.

"Consider yourself lucky," Mars yelled, "I could finish you off, but I have finished my job so any extra stuff like finishing you off is not part of the mission. So bye-bye for now and..." Mars looked at the little boy with the red beret hat, almost a speck now from the air, "I look forward to seeing you again."

Dawn stared at the commander girl and then at Lucas with horror. He was now a target. Cop sirens can be heard but by the time they arrive, it'll be too late.

"I'll see you later!" And soon the Haze was so thick that Dawn couldn't see through and coughed heavily.

"Dawn!" Damion yelled, unable to see through the smoke. Suddenly a huge gust of strong wind came blowing through and the Haze was gone. Damion rushed over to Dawn and Lucas.

"You okay?" Damion asked. Dawn swallowed hard and nodded. Lucas was still staring at the sky where Mars had taken off. "HEY! Lucas!" Lucas snapped awake and once again, found Damion's arms around his throat. "I asked you a question so you better respond!"  
"Argggh," Lucas said. Damion let go of Lucas' throat.

"Good, that's a lot better," Damion remarked as Lucas gasped. Dawn couldn't help but laugh for the first time in a while. The cop cars finally came and surround the entire building and the three kids.

"Kids!" One of the police officers came over, "Are you all right?!"

"Guys, get moving," another man yelled, "There are hostages in there!" Rushes of blue swarmed everywhere. Dawn sighed in relief, glad that everything was fine now.

"Daddy!" a girl came running into the building, "Daddy! Where are you?!"

"Kid!" One of the cops called out.

"Aura!" Someone yelled from the room. Out came, with the help of two cops, a young professor, badly beaten up, and the young Aura that Lucas promised to help. Aura noticed Lucas and came rushing to him.

"Thank you so much!" She hugged Lucas and before he could react, she planted a small kiss on Lucas' cheek. "That's my thanks to you." Lucas immediately blushed while Damion slapped his back.

"Congrats, your first kiss," Damion roared with laughter, looking relieve for some reason.

"Uh," Lucas gaped at Aura who skipped off to take care of her father.

"Come on! You save a woman in distress! Heck you might even get a date from this," Damion laughed.

"Knock it off guys," Dawn snapped, looking strangely sour. Lucas looked puzzle. She was happy before and now all... mad? He was about to ask her when suddenly two cops appeared.

"Kids, I need you guys to come to the station so I can ask some question."

"What?" Damion asked blankly, "Why?"

"You witnessed something and we need a statement from you guys," One of the cops explained. Dawn immediately frowned.

"Um, we didn't really see much," Dawn said, "We can't help much..."

"Nevertheless, its procedure," the cop explained. Damion gave Dawn a questioning look which was immediately quelled by her 'shut up and don't talk' look. Dawn was looking at the dazed Lucas. He was obviously hiding something and if the cops find something suspicious...

"Don't worry guys," a male gruff voice said. Dawn looked over and saw a flat black hair man with a large dusty brown trench coat. He had on a vest over his white collared shirt and a purple tie. His dark brown pants matched his vest and he had gray shoes. His beady little eyes stared particularly at Damion who, to Dawn's surprise, seem to recognize this man. "I know them and I'll take it from here."

**Author's Notes**

Hmmm, I wonder who that guy was.... lol.

Okay, I'm going to wrap things up quickly in the next chapter and then we'll be on with Damion's little journey during when all this happened.

**Damion**: YOU MEAN DAMION'S AMAZING ADVENTURE. STARING ME!

**JD:** Uh, no. First off, you're only here because I allowed you. And would you stop screaming?

**Damion:** What?! I haven't been in this story for almost four chapters and this is how you treat me?!

**JD:** Damion, put the baseball bat down and let's talk this out...

**Dawn:** HEY Damion stop! (start choking Damion)

**JD: **Dawn?

**Lucas:** I'm hungry. Oh, hello JD.

**JD**: Oh, hello Lucas. HEY wait a minute! How did you guys get in here?!

**Lucas:** You left the door open. (eating food)

URGH. Excuse me while I got deal with some stuff.

Let's thank my reviewers.

...

thank you

**xoxbb**

**SynctrainerLucas**

**SsX-77**

**PCT**

**Sparky**

**Pikana**

**Emperor Empoleon** (Plat files... I like that. Hey, another question, What happens in the forest after you get out of Floaroma Town? thanks for the info. Oh and to answer your question from **Johto,** yes, I have a PS2, gameboy, and ds.)

**RWT**

**WolfSummoner93**

**Ketchum Kid **(thanks for the review)

**writer's block 2000**

**gg121** (Glad you enjoy the story so far. thanks for reviewing.)

**Kingston **(Yay, we have something in common. lol. thanks for the review.)

**Black Rabbit-Chan**

**InWiththeRush**

for reviewing.

...

Okay that's it from me. HEY LUCAS! STOP EATING FROM MY FRIDGE! I'm broke you know! lol.

Thank you for reading and I'll see you next time.

**-JapanDreamer**


	34. Take Me to Your Leader

**Disclaimer: As the leader of my fanfic, I'm here to announce I don't own Pokemon.**

Wow! I forgot to mention this in my previous chapter but **500 REVIEWS**! YES! Thank you all who made this possible.

Okay first off, I didn't like this chapter. Probably because I want to rush Damion's journey a bit and get back to the real story, and I have no idea what to write as well. (But don't tell Damion that)

Anyways, enjoy the chapter.

**Chapter 31:**

Dawn shuddered in the large police coat that one of the officers offered. Her ripped dress made it quite chilly. She, Lucas, and Damion were sitting in the back of the man's car. Damion looked a little bit uneasy as he looked out the window, but he seemed to know the man well enough to listen to what he has to say.

Lucas, in the middle of the two, was holding on to his weak Shinx. The little Pokemon looked very ill and seemed to be exhausted. Drifloon was floating outside next to the three trainers. It was as though it was standing guard.

Dawn looked out of the window. The windmills were still turning despite the fact no one was working. The strong wind was blowing intensely, bring shivers down Dawn's back despite the fact she was in the safe haven of the brown car. The man had left them alone for a few moments while he discussed and looked at the crime scene. He told Dawn, Lucas, and Damion to wait in the car until he came back.

"Damion," Dawn said, breaking the silence, "Do you know this guy?" Dawn pointed to the back window where the police cars could be seen.

"Um, not really." It took a while for Dawn to register what Damion had said.

"WHAT?! Are you telling me that we're in this car because you sort-of know him?!" Lucas almost went deaf at his left ear from Dawn's scream.

"Hey! I know him well enough to know that he is on our side!" Damion yelled back. Now, Lucas almost went deaf at his right ear from Damion's scream.

"Oh, please," Dawn rolled her eyes, "I bet you just met him on the street and happen to say hello and that immediately started a friendship."

"No, I mean... Well, why don't you trust me?!" Damion growled.

"Because your intuition always leads us to the wrong path," Dawn snapped. Lucas groaned at Dawn's yelling voice. He wished he wasn't sitting in the middle between this fighting duo. "What's his name?"

"Dunno. But," Damion added as Dawn snorted in disbelief, "he told me that he was on a secret mission and he couldn't use his real name. All he told me was to call him Looker." Dawn rolled her eyes as Lucas' sparked up with interest.

"You mean that he is a secret agent?" Lucas asked excitedly. Damion was taken aback by Lucas' interest but grinned at the attention.

"Well, yeah, I mean I knew immediately he was suspicious looking and he had to admit his identity," Damion bragged, "He even gave me this!" Damion pulled out a small handheld electronic looking pad. It was blue-purple and had a Poke symbol on the top.

"It's a Vs. Recorder," Damion explained to the curious Lucas, "Looker gave it to me since he knew I was a good trainer."

"Yeah, I bet," Dawn muttered.

"So, what happened to your journey?" Lucas asked, sensing tension rising again. "How was the gym battle?" Damion grinned again and held up a small case. He opened it to reveal a gray boulder looking badge.

"Behold! The Coal Badge won by your truly."  
"Wowwwwww." Lucas was awed by the shiny gray color.

"You actually won?" Dawn asked, feigning surprise.

"Well, yeah," Damion rolled his eyes, "Did you actually think I wouldn't get it?"

There was a soft tap on the window. Damion looked and saw Looker. Understanding Looker's gesture, Damion rolled down the window manually.

"Hey Damion. Its good to see you again," Looker said, "Can I see the Vs. Recorder I gave you?"

"Oh, sure, Damion said, a little surprised at the request. Damion handed the small PDA looking device to Looker who looked at it immediately.

"What does he want with it?" Dawn whispered.

"I don't know," Damion replied, just as confused, "I didn't think he would want it back."

"I'm tired," Lucas sighed, "and hungry." Dawn sighed. Now that Lucas mentioned it, she was getting hungry as well. Its almost late afternoon and she hadn't eaten anything since breakfast.  
"You haven't changed a bit," Damion groaned. Looker came back and handed the Vs. Recorder. Damion quickly stored the device back into his pack.

"Thanks Damion, you've been a great help."

"No problem," Damion said smugly, "I'm happy to help an undercover cop."

"Shhh!" Looker looked around nervously, making sure that nobody was overhearing them, "Don't ruin my cover."

"Oh, sorry," Damion apologized, realizing that he almost made a huge mistake.

"Anyways, I cleared things up with the police. You can go now if you like." Looker opened the door and Damion, Lucas, and Dawn crawled out of the seats. Lucas sighed, relieved that everything was over, but Dawn looked up at Looker.

"Really, just like that?" Dawn asked suspiciously. Looker looked at her with a slight nod.

"Yes, just like that. Oh, by the way Damion, this group Team Galactic, there is some rumors about their headquarters in Eterna City." Looker got into his car and drove off, leaving the three trainers by themselves.

"Well, that was weird," Dawn thought, "He didn't even really talk to us."

"He's a cool guy," Damion defended, "Looker isn't bad or anything."

"Um," Lucas muttered, trying to get a word edgewise, "can we go to the Pokemon Center?" Dawn looked at Lucas and saw his concern face on his own Shinx.

"Oh, I'm sorry Lucas," Dawn said, "Let's get going now." Damion looked at Lucas' Pokemon with interest.

'"That's a strong looking Shinx," Damion commented, "Its Spark attack was really powerful."

"Thanks," Lucas said, but sighed sadly, "But it doesn't seem to listen to me. I wonder what I did wrong."

"Don't worry about it. Oh yeah, is this Drifloon yours?" Damion motioned his hand to the small purple balloon Pokemon that was still following them. Drifloon blushed and scurried behind Lucas for protection.

"Oh!" Lucas acted as though he just noticed the Pokemon, "No, I think its wild. You can go now. We'll be fine." Lucas added to the Pokemon. Drifloon cocked its head before sadly flying off, looking back at the three trainers every so often.

"It looks so sad," Dawn commented. Lucas looked wildly around.

"Did I do something wrong?!" Lucas was starting to panic.

"Ah, sheesh, it just felt lonely that's all." Damion was unconcern for the Pokemon. "Come on Lucas, you want that Shinx to be healed don't ya?" Lucas looked back at the small balloon, now a speck in the sky, before hurrying along with Dawn and Damion.

If Lucas looked back again, he would've noticed Drifloon suddenly turning back and following the three trainers again.

...

"Wow, this is going to take a while," Damion whistled in surprise. Hundreds of injured Pokemon were being taken care of that there was a long line to wait. "What's going on?"  
"There was a recent bomb at the Pokemon Contest," Dawn replied. She managed to change back into her normal clothing, which was a huge relief. "I'm pretty sure a lot of Pokemon are injured."

"Well that sucks," Damion sighed as he sat down on the grassy road. "Guess we'll just have to wait a bit."

"There is nothing wrong with waiting," Dawn replied, "Everybody needs to recover so let's just wait patiently."

"Yes, I know," Damion groaned, "but it's so HARD to do so."

"In that case," Lucas said, interrupting, not wanting to listen to complaints all day, "Why don't you tell us your adventure?"

"Yeah," Dawn agreed, "Why not? It'll be a great time consuming event."

"Huh? Adventure?" Damion thought for a moment. It would help speed up the time waiting with something to do. "Well, after we left..."

...

_A couple of days ago..._

Damion walked down the road that led to Oregburgh City. The sun was shining quite brightly and Damion was really excited that he started to do a nice jog. "Whoa, I'm going to enjoy today." Huge bursts of energy came bubbling from within him. "RIGHT! I'm going to win my badge today!"

_Grooowwwwllll_, Damion realized that the noise was coming from his stomach. "Err, first, I'll get something to eat." Damion sat down on the side of the road and took out his pack. Inside was a small wrapped sandwich with a can of lemonade. "Good thing I packed lunch." Damion sighed as he looked up at the fast moving clouds. Full of energy, he wanted to keep moving but at the same time, he was hungry.

Damion thought for a moment as to what to do. Well, he could eat here and enjoy the view or he could run the entire way and see if he could get there before late afternoon while eating at the same time. It was obvious which choice he would make.

"LET'S RUN!" Damion ran like the wind, holding a sandwich in his hand.

...

"Whoa," Damion grinned as he looked at Oreburgh City. "Awesome!"

The entire city was surrounded by large coal mine factory. The ground was even made of dirt instead of the usual hard ceramic road and grass side. Many of the men here were wearing green worker clothes and the yellow mining hat. Most of them were either holding handy tools or beams or small lunchboxes. Yellow bulldozers were moving around at a fast rate, putting more and more coal to mounds. Tall beams were supporting a moving ramp that was carefully transporting mounds of coal to different locations. The sky was covered with smoke in the sky from the debris and coal mining that was going on. Most of the buildings were in first stories.

"So bustling and all! I wonder where the gym leader is..." Damion looked around and went up to one of the workers. "Excuse me, do you know where I can find the gym leader?" The worker looked at Damion before laughing.

"You?! Challenge the gym leader?!" Damion felt quite insulted by the guy's laughter.

"Yeah, you have a problem with that?" The worker tried his best to change his laughter into unconvincing coughs.

"Sorry, the gym leader is in the coal mine at the moment. Perhaps you could wait until later to challenge him."

"Where is this mine?" Damion asked. The worker pointed to the direction of a large rock with a manmade hole that plunged into darkness.

"He's in there," the man explained, "but its dangerous there kid so-."

"Thanks!" Damion yelled, leaving the man behind.

"HEY! Only workers can go in there!" Damion ignored the man and grabbed one of the yellow worker hats before jumping into the darkness.

Without hesitation, Damion ran into the darkness. He switched on the lights at the top of his head. The small beam of light made it easier to see and maneuver in the dark.

"Heh," Damion grinned, "Now to find the gym leader." He walked lower and lower down on the slippery ground until he accidentally fell on some mud. "AHHHH!"

Damion found himself sliding down faster and faster as he moved down the dark hole. Finally, CRASH! Damion found his face slammed against a large mound of rock. Damion could feel the rock impression digging into his face.

"Kid!" the man yelled, rushing down, "I told you it was dangerous!"

"Yeah, whatever," Damion groaned as he rubbed his face, "Owwwww."

"Hahahaha, looks like you really want to have a battle with the gym leader," another voice laughed. Damion looked up and saw a 18 year old teenager with a red mining hat on his head, over his raspberry red hair.

The guy had on square glasses over his red eyes and short sleeve gray jacket with yellow cuffs and pants and black boots, all things that remind Damion of a firefighter. The guy offered one of his sooty white glove hands which Damion reluctantly took.

"Be more careful," the guy said, "This place is dangerous. Even civilians wouldn't come here. Now, speaking of which..." the guy gave a nod to Geodude next to him. The Geodude immediately used its hand and cracked the large rock that Damion crashed into. "There we go. Now, what brings you here?"

"I want to challenge the gym leader!" Damion proclaimed before the other man could say anything. "I was told he was here! Can you bring him to me?" The teenager guy grinned.

"Well, now, you're looking at him." Damion was puzzled at the guy's announcement. "I'm Roark, the gym leader of Oregburgh."

**Author's Notes**

Well, this wasn't my fav chapter. I hate development.

So I don't know if I want OCs in Damion's Side Story, but I'll see.

Let's thank my reviewers.

...

**Sparky**

**grammaguy**

**phantom shadow mask  
**

**SsX-77**

**Ketchum Kid** (hahaha, thanks for the idea. I'll keep that in mind.)

**xoxbb**

**SynctrainerLucas**

**pct**

**Emperor Empoleon** (thanks for the Plat info.)

**Pikana**

**Kingston** (thanks for the review!)

**dark5523**

**Black Rabbit-Chan**

**RWT**

**Jarkes** (Twin Swords?! You mean like weapon?!)

...

Well, thanks for the review and I'll see you in the next chapter.

**-JapanDreamer**


	35. Improving Damion's Skills

**Disclaimer: I don't own Pokemon.**

Hey guys! I updated. Again, I'm having trouble writing this, but probably a mood phase I'm going through.

Oh, yeah, I added an OC, but I haven't heard from the person for a while so I don't know if her name is still the same.

Okay, I have somethings I need to discuss later. Enjoy the chapter!

**Chapter 32:**

"You're the gym leader?!" Damion gasped. Roark grinned at Damion's face.

"Yup, though I must say, you must be one of those who just blindly joined in the Pokemon League because usually all the trainers I met recognize me." Roark laughed, in a more playful way. Damion felt his face turn red. It never occurred to him that he should have recognize gym leaders as a common curtsey, and know what type they fought with could be even better. If one is going to challenge a gym leader, its better to know what type they use.

Roark wiped the soot of the lenses of his glasses before putting them back on. "Well, then, judging by your face, I'm guessing I'm right. But I'll give you an even chance. Come tomorrow afternoon to have your official gym battle. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to get back to work."

With that Roark walked off with his Geodude falling behind him. Damion was speechless until he realized that the day of the battle was one day later than he wanted. "Wait!" Damion yelled, "Why not today?!" Roark looked over his shoulder and smiled.

"Seriously, do you actually think you can win against me if we fought right now?" Roark couldn't help but laugh as he walked off.

"What are you scare?!" Roark stopped and looked at Damion's determined face. The kid actually looked as though he was going to win.

_Not bad attitude_, Roark thought, _but it'll take more than just that to win_. "Fine. You're on." Roark motioned Geodude to move in front of him. "We'll do a one on one battle. My Geodude versus any of your Pokemon. You win against me, and I'll give you the badge right here, right now."

To prove his deal, Roark took out the gray Coal badge from his pocket and held it so that Damion could see it in the dim light. Damion's eyes were filled with excitement.

"All right! Go Chimchar!" Damion threw out one of his Pokeball and the small monkey popped out, rubbing its eyes as it tried to adjust to the dimness of the mine. A couple of workers with their Machop who were all digging in the rocks looked up with interest.

"Roark is challenging someone. This I got to see!" Soon there was a huge crowd of people watching. Roark looked puzzlingly at Damion's choice of Pokemon.

"Why in the world did you choose a Fire type? Don't you know fire is weak against rock?" Damion stared blankly at Roark's comment.

"It is?" Everybody around them started to laugh like crazy. Even Roark couldn't help give a small chuckle. Damion felt flustered and embarrassed. "Chimchar use Ember!" The small monkey, with incredible speed, blasted out a stream of fire. Unfortunately, the rock Pokemon didn't even seem to be fazed by it.

"Told you so," Roark said, watching Damion's shock expression, "Geodude Rock Throw!" Geodude threw a couple of rocks from the mine and started aiming at Chimchar.

"Dodge!" Damion yelled. Chimchar did a pretty good job scurrying around. It even managed to climb on the rocky walls with good dexterity.

"Nice," Roark grinned, "But what happens when I hit your Pokemon?" As if to prove his point, Chimchar slipped on the muddy floor and Geodude threw one pretty large rock and slammed it at the fire Pokemon. The force caused Chimchar to faint immediately.

"Chimchar NO!" Damion yelled, rushing to its side. The entire work force looked bored and glum.

"Well, that wasn't even a worthwhile battle to watch..." one of the guys grumbled before leaving.

'Hey, guys," Roark said, "Break it up. Go back to work." Everybody slowly left, leaving Damion by himself. Roark went up and crouched next to him. "Don't worry about it. Come tomorrow and we'll finish this battle." Roark got up and went back to join the other miners. He stopped a moment and turn back to look at Damion. "Word of advice – train your Pokemon a bit, and remember to study your opponent first."

Damion didn't respond. As much as he hated to admit it, Damion had to agree that Roark was right. Not training his Pokemon a bit is pretty stupid. In order to win, Damion needed to improve his battle skills.

"Come on kid," the worker said, noticing Damion's glum face, "Instead of moping around, why don't you train yourself before you challenge the gym leader. You probably need experience that's all."

"Yeah, you're right," Damion said, suddenly realizing the positive side of the situation, "I just need to get my Pokemon in battle shape before tomorrow! Thanks old man!" And with that, Damion rushed out of the mine, leaving the worker all by himself.

_Well, now. There's a positive looking fellow there_.

...

Damion panted and wiped off the sweat from his face as he looked at the result of his work. He was just at the outside of the city, practicing on large boulders as target practice. He was standing on dirt soiled road. Large yellow clouds loomed overhead as the sun was setting above the horizon. There were two large boulders side by side in front of Damion. One was burnt and scorched; the other had thin slash marks on it. Chimchar and Starly were next to Damion both exhausted by the training Damion was putting into.

"Chimchar! Use Ember! Stary, Wing Attack!" Damion yelled. Chimchar blasted bits of fire at the black soot side of the rock while Starly's wings glowed before slamming against the large boulder, creating another small mark on it. Damion groaned at the poor result. He had been working at this for almost five hours. None of the attacks are working. "Okay, there's got to be a better way to improve our tactics..." Damion muttered as he tried to think of another way to speed up the training process.

"Say there, why don't you just battle trainers?" Damioin almost jumped from surprise at the sudden voice. He looked around and saw teenager girl, about 14, looking back at him. The girl was sitting on top of the large rocks that were lying around. She had on a purple tank top with a mini black skirt and red trimmed black boots to go with it. Her fair skin went well with her deep blue eyes and mid-length brown hair. Around her waist was a blue belt that had six Pokeballs attached to it. Around her shoulder was a red and black messenger type of bag.

"Excuse me? Who are you?" Damion asked, wondering what this girl want. The girl slid off of the large boulder and stood face to face with Damion. Her attitude was filled with stubbornness and toughness.

"Name's Eri. You think burning and scratching rocks are going to improve your game?" the girl scoffed. It wasn't really a question. "Try battling. Also, why in the world are you just using such weak attacks? Wait, let me guess. Those are your best ones." Damion immediately glared the girl. She really knew how to push his buttons.

"For your information, I do know that my attacks are weak. I'm building up endurance since I have the disadvantage," Damion snapped before he turned away, "You don't need to lecture me." The girl fell silent as she watched Damion ordered the attacks again. She noticed the marks on the boulders and thought to herself.

"What's the problem?" Damion turned around and looked suspiciously at the Eri. "Hey, no need to look mad, I asked a question that's all," Eri said. Damion shrugged, thinking that it wouldn't hurt to tell.

"I got a gym battle tomorrow. I learned Roark uses Rock-types and my Pokemon have quite a disadvantage with this." The girl looked at his two Pokemon and noticed the problem. Fire and Flying types are weak against Rock.

Now that she thought about it, Eri thought Damion's idea was pretty good for training. Constantly trying to damage rocks will give the Pokemon a bit of endurance practice and increase fire power. Of course, this wasn't the best way to train with little time though.

"Come on Chimchar!" Damion said, "Attack that crack on the rock!" Chimchar scratched at the small crack which suddenly seemed to expand and become deeper. "Good! We're making progress." Damion sighed with relief. Eri stared at Damion with interest. He was really dedicated to his training despite the attitude and stubbornness.

"Why don't I be your partner?" Eri asked, a little surprised at her question. Damion looked equally surprised as well.

"Excuse me?" Damion stared. Eri couldn't help but blush a little though to Damion, he thought that she was just a little embarassed.

"Well... you need help," Eri mumbled, "Training with a moving opponent is better than a rock." Damion thought about it for a moment. It would be nice to fight against someone that can actually talk back to him.

"Okay then," Damion motioned his two Pokemon to face against Eri, "you're on." Eri grinned as she took one of the Pokeballs from her belt.

"Then let's begin. Let's go Nymph!" Eri summoned out her Blastoise. Damion took out his Pokedex and read the data about this giant turtle.

"Did you name your Blastoise Nymph because it looked like one?" Damion asked jokingly. Eri stared blankly at him.

"No, I named it Nymph because it's a cool name." Damion sighed. Eri had no sense of humor.

"Okay, whatever. Chimchar go!" Damion ordered, "Ember!" Chimchar blasted a small fiery attack at Blastoise's tough shell.

"Are you serious?!" Eri asked incredulously, "Nymph use Water Gun!"

"Dodge!" Damion ordered and Chimchar managed to speed off before the jet of water came crashing down on it. "I'm training, not battling. So, I need to improve my speed because that's the best thing I have."

"Wow," Eri looked surprise, "you actually sound intelligent."

"What's that suppose to mean?!" Damion yelled back. Eri grinned at Damion angry face.

"Nothing," Eri shook her head, "You're a pretty cool guy that's all." Damion stared at her puzzlingly, but Eri decided to change the subject. "Let's get back to work."

...

_The next day..._

"Phew, I never thought I could improve so much in less than a day," Damion grinned as he looked at the two Pokeballs. He was really pleased at his Pokemon's performances and their growth in power. Damion couldn't help but grin. Wait till Roark sees him this time!

Damion rushed out of the small room in the Pokemon Center. Outside, he saw Eri, already waiting for him. She was obviously been there for a while because her eyes were filled with impatience.

"About time," Eri yawned, bored-like, "Ready for the gym battle?"

"Yeah," Damion grinned, "I'm already charged up now." Eri couldn't help but smile. "LET'S FINISH IT UP!" Damion rushed down the path at hyper speed.

Eri looked curiously at the trail of dust. Damion was the type of guy that she found pretty... cool. Now that Eri thought about it, after all that training, what is stopping her from watching the battle as well?

Eri followed Damion to the gym.

...

Damion looked up at the gym building. The large structure was made of rock... possibly coal. On the top, there was a large sign that said Oregburgh Gym. There were two pillars made of gray rocks. On the right pillar, there was a announcement of the name of the gym leader, the open and close times. Taking a deep breath, Damion took one step forward. The large glass doors opened electronically.

Right in front of Damion was Roark, who seemed to be waiting for him.

"Well, I see you're up and about," Roark smiled. Damion grinned. "Judging by your expression, I say that you're ready to go." Roark motioned Damion to follow him. Damion looked around the room and noticed that the entire gym was made of rock, inside and out. The dim lights made the gym look like the mine Damion was at yesterday. There were random large rocks lying around everywhere.

Damion noticed in the middle of the gym was a large gym floor. There was a very strong light right above the battle ground. Roark motioned to go the right side, while Roark went to the left.

"Okay," Roark said, "Two on two. The person whose Pokemon manages to faint the other's wins."

"Gotcha," Damion grinned, "Let's begin." Roark grabbed one of his Pokeballs from his brown belt and threw it to the floor.

"Go Geodude!" Roark yelled. The same rock Pokemon from yesterday popped out of the ball.

"Let's show him what we got!" Damion grinned.

...

Eri frowned for a moment as she noticed the lock door. She looked around and saw to her luck, an open window on the side of the gym. It was too small for her to get through, but she could be able to see what was going on. Carefully, she climbed up by using a small crate as support, and peer through the small window.

After figuring out how long the battle was, Eri smiled. Damion was doing a pretty good job.

**Author's Notes**

Yeah, I didn't like this ending but oh well. I'm going to see if I can finish Damion's journey by the next chapter.

Okay, I've been notified by a couple of people that my story is getting pretty long. I just want to ask you guys if that's okay with you. I don't mind really, but if some of you guys want me to speed it up, notify me and suggest some way to speed up.

Now, let's thank my reviewers.

...

**phantom shadow mask**

**SynctrainerLucas**

**dark5523**

**xoxbb**

**Ketchum Kid** (Well, I'm not sure about the swords, but that would be nice... except I'll have to change the ratings probably. thanks for the review.)

**tatewaki2000**

**pct**

**Emperor Empoleon** (Thanks for the review. Yeah, its long, that's why I'm asking if I should continue at this rate.)

**Sparky**

**Black Rabbit-Chan**

**RWT**

**Pikana**

**InWithTheRush**

**gg121** (yeah, actually Lucas may be deaf already, considering how he has trouble listening to Damion...)

...

Thanks for reading and I'll update fast if I can.

**-JapanDreamer**


	36. Battle End and Finding a Lamp

**Disclaimer: Dun dun dun! I don't own Pokemon.**

Hi guys! Sorry for being late a bit! New chapter is about seven pages so that should make up for the lateness.

I would like the thank Emperor Empoleon for giving all the information that I needed to make this chapter.

Enjoy!

**Chapter 33:**

"No way!" Roark smiled, a little bit surprise, "You got your Pokemon to evolve." In front of Damion, ready for battle was a Monferno. The once small playful monkey was now more focused and ready for battle. "Though I must say, your choice is still pretty bad."

"Actually, Monferno has the edge when it comes to rock types," Damion grinned. Roark shook his head but smiled.

"Then show me what you got. Geodude, Rollout!"

"Monferno use Mach Punch!" Before the Rock Pokemon could even react, the fire Pokemon slammed its fist against the thick protective body. The attack managed to send Geodude flying into the air before crashing down back to earth, creating a huge cloud of dust. Geodude was knocked out immediately. The buzzer sounded, signaling that Damion won the first battle.

"YAY! We won! We won!" Damion exclaimed. Then he and Monferno immediately did some sort of weird victory/square dance. "We won, we won, we won, we won, we won!"

Eri gaped at the two happy 'campers' with embarrassment. She was so shock that she almost lost her grip and fell down. Damion is really... weird in his own way.

"Hahahaha," Roark laughed, wiping his glasses due to the dust that got into his eyes, "you really know how to celebrate." Roark returned his Geodude back into the Pokeball. "Though I must say, I forgot Monferno is also a fighting type." Damion grinned back.

"Yeah, I figure that since fighting types have a huge advantage, I should use Monferno first. I improve his speed and accuracy as much as possible." Eri almost slapped her forehead in frustration. Damion was bragging way too much.

"Whoa, take it easy," Roark said, shaking his head, "Let's just finish battle before we start our bragging. Remember you only won in one battle. Let's see how well you'll do with my second Pokemon." Roark took out his second Pokemon. He couldn't help but give a secret smile. This one is his best Pokemon. Not only that, but is rare and hard to find... actually, correction, it can't be found in the wild.

"Go, Cradonidos!" Roark yelled. Out came the blue and grey dinosaur Pokemon.

"Whoa!" Damion gasped, "I've never seen that Pokemon before." He took out his Pokedex and aimed it at the Pokemon who seemed to be ready to charge. "Let's see, Cradonidos... strongest rock type, extinct... Wait! Extinct?!" Damion looked at the Pokemon and back at his Pokedex to make sure he wasn't dreaming.

"This Pokemon," Roark crouched down to pat the Pokemon on the head, "was revived from fossils by using technology. But are we here for studies or for battle?" Damion blushed in embarrassment. He needed to get his focus back on winning or else he'll lose for sure.

"Monferno! Mach Punch again!" Monferno repeated the same move and thrust forward.

"Move Cradonidos then Headbutt!" Roark ordered and to Damion's surprise, Cradonidos moved with such dexterity and avoided the attack before slamming at Monferno who lost his balance from missing the target. "I know most Rock Pokemon's weakness is in its speed. I improve my Cradonidos' speed and with its strong attack... well you know the rest."

"You don't need to brag," Damion smirked, countering Roark's statement. Roark grinned at Damion's remark. "Yeah, you're right Damion. So instead, I'll just show you. Cradonidos, use Scary Face!" The Pokemon increased its angry face which caused Monferno to falter back. "If I slow you down, then attacks are easier to come by."

"Grrrr," Damion frowned. He didn't plan this to happen. He relied on speed and power that he didn't think much about defense. How was he going to counter this?

Eri frowned. It was true that Monferno was good at power and speed but defense is weak. If Monferno's speed was decreased and Cradonidos can dodge easily, then... well, chances are Monferno will lose.

_Think!_ Eri thought, _there's got to be a method to counter attack_. Then something hit her! Two can play the same game. The question was how to relay the message to Damion.

"Monferno! Ember!" Damion yelled desperately. Monferno, confused at the change of attack pattern, sent out blast of small fire. Cradonidos couldn't dodge it, but it didn't feel the attack really. Despite that, the Pokemon kept a far distance from the Monferno. "Monferno hide now!" Monferno dodge behind one of the large rocks, keeping its large eyes on the landscape.

"Well, now, we're on the defensive side now aren't we?" Roark grinned, "Only, you don't really have a defensive Pokemon huh?" Damion growled in frustration. This was bad.

"WELL NOW! TOO BAD THE DEFENSE CAN'T BE LOWERED SO WE CAN BE ON EVEN PLAYING FIELD!" Damion and Roark looked wildly around at the strange call. "What was that?!" Roark asked, confused. Damion looked around to determine the direction of the yelling and noticed the small window, bringing the very little sunlight into the room, was opened. Strange... that voice sounded like...

...

Meanwhile, Eri was hiding in one of the bushes. Panting, she wiped the sweat off of her forehead. Her heart was just calming down from the panic situation she was in.

_Well,_ Eri thought, _that was louder than she expected_. Damion better figure it out or else. She sighed as she brushed the small twigs and leaves off of her hair. She peered through the bush and made sure no one was around who would be searching for the source of the sound.

After a couple of minutes, Eri crawled slowly back to the gym building, carefully, she jumped and lifted herself up to peer through the window again. Hoping to see how far the battle was going and to her disappointment, there was a giant dust storm. Gritting her teeth, she winced as the sand got into her eye. Holding onto the window with one hand and another to wipe her eyes, Eri blinked many times that caused small tears to fall.

When the dust settled, Eri looked through teary eyes and saw the result of the battle. She couldn't help but smile.

...

Damion frowned. What was that yelling about defense all about? Then something hit him. If he can lower Cradonidos' defense, accuracy... then maybe... "Monferno! Leer now!" Monferno, once again puzzle at this order, glared at Cradonidos.

"Cradonidos use Pursuit!" Roark yelled.

"Keep using Leer!" Damion ordered. Monferno did its best to dodge every single attack thrown and kept using the defensive attack. It seemed to go on forever and that the last one to stand would be the one who could endure the most.

"Don't think that just reducing my defense will help you win," Roark remarked, "My Pokemon's attack is good for close distance. My attack won't miss if you try to get close to me and your attack can't hit me if you're that far away."

"Monferno! Return!" The monkey was suddenly sent back into its Pokeball. Crandonidos was a little bit surprise at the disappeared target.

"Whoa, you're going to run off?" Roark looked surprise.

"I'm going to take this to a whole new strategy," Damion grinned. He needed to remain calm and do this correctly if he wanted to win. "Staravia go!" The newly evolved bird Pokemon flew out of the Pokemon and was flying in the air, close to the ceiling.

"Hmmm, nice strategy, if I had my Geodude, I could get your Pokemon..." Roark sighed. Cradondios was more of a land and close combat fighter. Aerial is not a good type to go against, despite the strengths rock Pokemon had.

"I trained Staravia a lot. I'm not going to lose with my Pokemon with me," Damion grinned, "Staravia, use Sand Attack and Double Team!" Staravia charged low and immediately multiplied. As Staravia swooped, it flapped its wings and soon a large sandstorm appeared.

"Dang!" Roark coughed, "I can't see a thing." And neither can Crandonios... Roark gritted his teeth. The moves Damion ordered were good. If by some chance Crandonios manage to see Staravia through the cloud of sand, the Double Team would make it even more impossible to hit still.

"So, let's get this going!" Damion grinned, he was winning and he knew it. "Staravia! Use Quick Attack!" Staravia immediately disappeared and reappeared next to Crandonios and slammed against the Rock Pokemon. This time, the attack took more damage than usual.

"Monferno's Leer lowers the defense, making it easier to finish your Rock Pokemon off and with lower accuracy, your Crandonios can't fight back." Roark stared dumbly for a moment before starting to laugh.

"Amazing! Simply amazing. You managed to change your battle plan easily, but even though I have less chance in winning, I'm not going to back down just yet. Crandonios, use Headbutt!"

"Staravia use Quick Attack again to finish this off!" Staravia swooped down like a fighter jet and slammed against the Cradondios's thick skull. Both Pokemon recoiled and got sent flying in opposite directions. Staravia slid against the floor, creating a huge dust trail before coming to a complete stop while Cradonios crashed head first into one of the boulders, making a large indent crack on it.

Damion and Roark tried to look through the dust but the sandy particles were too thick to allow any visual. Finally the dust settled a bit and both of the trainers were shocked by the outcome. Staravia, too weak to fly, was panting and sighing. Its feather was tattered and was shaken by the impact. Cradondios looked just as badly as Staravia. Its small legs were trembling, on the verge of collapse. After what seemed to be a long ten seconds, Cradondios finally collapsed to the ground, unable to continue battling. The buzzer sounded once more.

Roark had lost and Damion has won the match. "We... won?" Damion stared at the scoreboard to make sure he wasn't dreaming. "WE WON!" Damion scooped Staravia into his arms and hugged it tightly. "We won Staravia!" Staravia gasped and flapped its wings frantically, trying to escape the massive hug attack.

"Man, I lost. Back to training then," Roark sighed as he return his Crandondios, "You did well Crandondios. We're going to train harder and win next time." Roark, taking something out of his pocket, walked up to the happy, very oblivious trainer with his half-choked Staravia. "Congratulations Damion! Here's your prize, the Coal Badge."

Roark opened the palm of his glove to reveal the shiny gray badge. Damion calmed down a bit and stared at wonder at the badge. He took it carefully as if he was afraid that he might break it. Then unable to contain his happiness, Damion gave a whooping holler and jumped high into the air.

"Yes! My first badge!" Roark smiled, looking at the energetic boy.

_Although he does have a temper, that kid does know how to think of strategy once he calm down and think. He'll go far if he can hone his skills properly_.

"You did a great job too!" Damion exclaimed to Roark. "What?" Roark said, taken aback by Damion's comment.

"I mean," Damion explained, "I thought it was all about strength and attacks that would help you win, but using Leer and Sand Attack actually helps. So... um, thank you for the battle." Damion finished by bowing low in front of the gaped Roark. To Damion's surprise, Roark roared with laughter.

"You're not a bad kid," Roark smiled, "I'm glad to have a great battle with you. We should have another again, but next time, I'll win for sure." Damion grinned and the both of them shook hands.

...

After the battle, Damion went the Pokemon Center where he went to heal his two Pokemon. Damion was admiring his badge for such a long time while he was waiting.

"Excuse me," Nurse Joy said, signaling Damion to come over, "We healed your Pokemon." Damion took the two Pokeballs and rushed out of the door rather quickly.

"Well, we're all healed up," Damion grinned, looking at his two Pokeballs. "Now that we're finished, let's head to Floaraoma Town and surprise Dawn with this badge."

"Hey! Aren't you going to say goodbye?!" Damion spun around and saw Eri right behind him.

"Oh! Eri! I was wondering where you were," Damion said, surprised. Eri turned red with embarrassment and muttered something like 'running away from angry pedestrians...'

"Well, looks like you won your first badge," Eri motioned to the small trainer badge holder case that Damion received from Roark. "Congrats!"

"Thanks, though I must say, the only reason I won was because I heard this voice to tell me change my strategy!" Damion grinned.

"Really?" Eri asked innocently.

"Yeah!" Damion continued, not noticing the fact that Eri was trying very hard not to laugh. "I don't know... I was surprise that it came at the crucial time I needed help... maybe... hey it was my inner conscious! I know it" Eri almost tumbled to the ground at Damion's conclusion.

"Right... you keep thinking that," Eri sighed. Damion didn't seem to hear Eri's comment since he was too busy being proud of his smart thinking.

"Well, what are you going to do now?" Damion asked Eri. Eri shrugged her shoulders before looking at the afternoon sky.

"I'm going to travel to Hearthrome City. I heard the scenery there is quite nice. So I guess this is goodbye huh?" Damion shifted uncomfortably at his feet.

"Yeah, I guess, so," Damion took out his hand, "thanks for everything." Eri took Damion's hand and there was a mutual friendship that immediately formed.

"Well, I couldn't let you just fail like that. You're a cute guy, and I like you," Eri grinned and before Damion could ask what she said, Eri rushed away, leaving Damion alone.

"She had on the same expression like Lily..." Damion remembered the girl whom he had his first battle with, "Is this the infection again?" Damion thought about what Dawn said. Maybe it only happened to girls? Damion was still in confusion as he left the area.

...

By evening, Damion had walked all the way back to Jubilife City. After all the excitement he had after he won his first gym battle, Damion was a bit tired. He wanted to find a place to sleep and get up early tomorrow for some early training before heading to Floaroma Town.

"It's a pretty lively place even at night," Damion thought as he looked at the brightly lit city. Street lamps made huge shadows across the ground that was overlapped with more shadows. The brightness from stores, houses, and such made the whole place look like a city that never sleeps. People were still walking back and forth, some having conversations while others were busy with shopping. Many young elementary children were playing with their Pokemon as they joined the bustling part of the city.

Damion walked carefully around, trying to remember where the Pokemon Center was. "Let's see, I remember it being on this side of the road and then I tur-." Damion stopped for a moment because he saw something flicker in his eye. Damion turned around and saw to his amazement a strange looking man who was trying (and failing) to blend in with the lamp post next to the Pokemon Center.

The man was wearing a brown leather trench coat and seemed to be muttering something like 'being one with the lamp.' There were many people, including Damion, staring at the man like he was crazy or something.

"Ummm, excuse me," Damion asked, "Are you okay?" The guy flinched at Damion's question and looked around to see if Damion was talking to someone else. Then without warning, the guy just ran off, leaving Damion by himself. Damion blinked a couple of times, gaping at what just happened.

"Well that was awkward," Damion said, wondering why did the guy just left all of a sudden. Sighing, Damion walked into the Pokemon Center. By eleven, he was in bed, provided by the Pokemon Center, and was ready to sleep.

Today was definitely a weird day.

...

The next morning, Damion, completely reenergized, walked outof the Pokemon Center. He stretched his hands high into the air. It was a cool breezy day. Lots of clouds were scampering through the sky, blocking the sunlight once in a while. "Mmmmm, good day!" Damion grinned. "Right I need to go to Flararoma Town if I want to scare Dawn!" He was about to start running when he was pulled back by his shirt. "HEY!" Damion yelled, "What's the -?"

"Hey kid, shush." Damion looked around and saw that it was the same lamp post guy he saw last night. "Oh you're that lamp post man."

"I'm not a lamp post man," the guy hissed, "where did you get that idea?!"

_Uh, you were trying to be a lamp so that makes you a lamp post man_, Damion thought but decided not to say anything.

"Anyways," the guy coughed to change the subject, "I wanted to talk to you."

"Me?" Damion now looked puzzled. "Why?"

"Why? Well, you were the only one who was able to see through my disguise," the man said, "No one except the police force could do that."

"Um, if you didn't notice last night, there was a whole bunch... wait police foce?!" Damion gasped, ONLY police force can see through that guy's 'hiding' ablility?! The guy grinned, thinking that Damion was amazed at his true identity.

"My name codename can not be revealed," the man said, "but you can call me Looker." Damion stared at Looker and he decided to continue his explanation. "You're a truly amazing person! You have the gifts of the eyes and your power of perception is amazing."

Damion couldn't help but blush a little. Such high compliments from the international police force! "Well," Damion grinned, enjoy the praise, "I do have the gift and my battling skills are amazing. Look I won my first gym badge." Damion took out his case to reveal the small metal badge. Looker looked impressed.

"You have talent. I know it! In fact, here's a gift for you," Looker took out a small electronic pad device and handed it to Damion. "It's call a Vs. Recorder," Looker explained, "Helps you record your battles and such. Very useful when going over strategies."

"Wow!" Damion was a bit impress at the generosity of the expensive looking gift, "And you're giving this to me because...?"

"Oh, I have no use for it," Looker explained, "I don't battle much and it would be a waste if I don't give it to someone who needs it. Anyways, if you see me again, don't talk to me."

"Um, why?" Damion asked puzzled.

"Because nobody should know my secret identity. Wait, on second thought you must talk to me the next time we meet."

"Uh, why?" Damion asked again, wondering why Looker change his mind.

"Oh, it's not that I'm lonely or anything. I just want to talk that's all and let me know if there is anything suspicious going on during your travels. Anyways! Must dash!" Before Damion could respond in any way, Looker just took off, leaving a trail of dust behind.

"You know," Damion said, looking at his Pokeball, "I think the only reason he want to talk to me is because he is lonely." Damion took another look at the Vs. Recorder before putting it into his brown bag. "Guess I'll go to Floaroma Town. Maybe I can make it in time to see Dawn's performance." With that Damion rushed off.

Author's Notes

"be one with the lamp" Lol. I love that line.

Okay, I have a bit of news. I'm going to be out on vacation soon. Won't be back for a while. I'll have more info posted but just want to give you a heads up.

Let's thank my reviewers now.

...

thank you

**phantom shadow mask**

**Assassin42**

**Ketchum Kid **(thanks for the review.)

**dark5523**

**SynctrainerLucas**

**RWT**

**grammaguy**

**gg121** (thanks for reviewing.)

**Black Rabbit-Chan**

**Jarkes **(thanks for the extra info. I'll remember that. I won't change the rating above T. I'll remember that.)

**Hoshi **(thanks for the compliments. I hope to hear from you again.)

for reviewing.

...

well that's it from me. If I forgot to thank someone, I apologize. I've been busy and seemed to lost track of time.

see you in the next chapter.

**-JapanDreamer**


	37. On to New Adventure!

**Disclaimer: Don't own Pokemon**

Well, another new chapter. Yay! What fun.

Okay finishing the Floaroma arc so I can get to the next good stuff.

enjoy!

**Chapter 34:**

Damion was almost out of Jubilife City when he noticed a group of people blocking the road up ahead. At first, Damion didn't think much of it until he noticed that the person hassled by two guys was Professor Rowan. Damion's first instinct was to hide and run away, but Damion stopped for a moment just to see what was going on. Now that he noticed it, the two guys that were surrounding Professor Rowan were dressed very strangely. Like outer space robots...

Professor Rowan looked the same as always with his brown trench coat, white collared shirt, and navy blue vest with tie, black slacks, and brown loafers. His white hair seemed to shine and gleam a bit under the bright sunlight.

The two people were both like twins, having the bowl cut turquoise hair, height, weight, eyes, and even the stubborn expression they were both wearing.

"What do you want?" Rowan asked angrily and haughtily, the same voice that Damion know too well. Damion could understand why the two guys were both sort of cowering back. One of the two twins was brave enough to speak back.

"Don't talk to us like that old man!" Guy 1 (Damion decided to call him this), "We're telling you that you need to come with us. This is not an option."

"You actually think I'm just going to follow you?" Rowan scoffed. It wasn't a question. Damion looked at the situation. Professor Rowan is obviously intimidating the twins, but it was obvious that the two were not going to let Rowan walk away. In fact, Damion noticed the Pokeballs that the two were fingering with casually. Rowan seemed to notice this too, but didn't seem to be showing signs of faltering. Damion walked cautiously toward the group who seemed oblivious of him at the moment.

"Look professor, we can either the easy way or the hard way," Guy 2 said in a fierce voice. This time both of them took out their Pokeballs. Damion gulped. The twins looked like they mean business.

Without thinking of the consequences, as usual, Damion jumped in front of Rowan and in front of the two twins.

"Hey! Leave Professor Rowan alone you goony twins!" Damion yelled. Rowan gaped at the surprise act of Damion while the twins seemed to be trying to digest the name that Damion called them.

"We're not goony! And we're not twins!" Both of the guys, having the same angry expression, said at the same time. Damion couldn't help but roll his eyes. Rowan's stony face didn't change in expression at all.

"Yeah," Damion said, scoffing, "That _totally_ doesn't make you twins." The two guys immediately fumed.

"Don't joke with Team Galactic!" Both of them yelled. The two of them took out their Pokeball and threw it to the ground. Immediately, a Skunky and Glameow appeared, ready for battle. "The professor comes or we're going to use more deadly force." Rowan immediately glared at the two twins. This was outrageous behavior!

However, to Rowan's surprise, Damion seemed to grin as if he knew something he didn't know. Damion took out his two Pokemon and revealed a Staravia and a Monferno. Rowan couldn't help but feel a look of pride and amazement. In just a few days, Damion managed to train Chimchar quite well.

"Do you really want to fight?" Damion demanded. The two grunts immediately flinched, seeing the tough look the boy's two Pokemon were emitting. "Staravia, use Quick Attack! Monferno use Mach Punch!" Staravia and Monferno immediately disappeared and appeared right in front of Skunky and Glameow respectfully. Staravia slammed head on and Skunky immediately fainted. Monferno's fists punched the Glameow, causing immediate K.O.

"So," Damion grinned at the two grunts horrified look at their fainted Pokemon, "Who's next?" The grunts immediately backed up, clearly uneasy at the situation. Their job was just to kidnap the professor. There was nothing in the description about a kid with him.

"We'll... we'll get you next time! You're lucky we let you off!" Grunt 1 yelled in defense. Both of them returned their Pokemon and before Damion could react, ran off like a couple of scared kids.

"Hey!" Damion yelled, "COME BACK HERE!"

"Damion, please stop yelling," Rowan said, "You're making a scene." Damion looked around and noticed the bunches of people looking at his direction.

"Oh," Damion shrugged, "Sorry." Rowan shook his head and looked at Damion curiously.

"Thanks for your help. You're Pokemon have become a lot stronger." Damion, confused, looked up at the stern face of Professor Rowan. Was... the professor... congratulating him? "Though I must say," Rowan continued, "I wonder why they were so adamant about me... Team Galactic... I don't like the sound of this..." Rowan shook his head before turning to Damion.

"Where are your friends Damion?" Rowan asked. Damion jolted and suddenly remembered of the promise he made with Dawn.

"Oh! There was a Contest in Floaroma Town and I wanted to get my badge so we kinda split up... OH SHOOT! I need to go! See ya gramps!" With that Damion ran off at such a fast rate that he left a loud dust cloud for Rowan.

"Humph, such a reckless boy still," Professor Rowan muttered as he brush off the dust that cling to his coat. "Well, at least they're fine for now. Now I must get back to Sandgem Town... I need to find more info on this Galactic..."

...

"Whoo! So this is Floaroma Town!" Damion grinned as he looked at the giant meadow surrounding the entire town. "A little bit too peaceful, but maybe that's how the place is built..." He looked around and noticed at the right side of his view he could see what looked like giant fans, with propellers moving lazy around counter clockwise.

"Well, then," Damion stretched his arms into the air, "Let's go find that contest building!" Damion took one step down the hill he was on when... BOOM! Damion found himself falling and tumbling down. "Ow! Ouch! ARGH! AHHH!" Damion screamed as he got cut and scraped by rocks. Finally he landed on his head at the bottom. "That hurtssss...." Damion groaned as he rubbed his sore spot. He suddenly noticed a whole bunch of people running around and screaming.

"What's that noise?!"

"Call the ambulance! Call the fire department!"

"The explosion came from the contest area!" Damion froze with horror. Contest?! Dawn and Lucas were supposed to be there. Ignoring the throbbing pain, Damion followed the crowd, hoping he could spot Dawn or Lucas along the way.

...

Damion was walking down the road. He tried to reach the Pokemon Contest, but the police and fire department had held him back, refusing him to go in. All Damion could do now is simply wait and hope that he would be able to spot Dawn or even Lucas.

"Help! Someone help me!" Damion stopped and noticed a girl, trying to get someone's attention. The girl was pulling on one of the officer's sleeve. "My father! Please!"

"Kid, we're going to go over there, once we clear up this mess," the police officer said, "Could you hold on for a minute?"

"I asked for a guy name Lucas to go," the girl screamed, "but they... I don't know if they'll be okay! Please! I'm afraid they'll get hurt!" Damion froze. Did the girl said Lucas? Damion immediate went up to the girl and pushed her to face him.

"Does this Lucas went with a girl named Dawn?" The girl sniffled and blow her nose with a tissue before responding.

"He... he went with a girl... I think her name is Dawn."

"Where did they go?!" Damion demanded. The girl, taken aback by Damion's angry tone, sobbed for a second before calming down a bit.

"They... they went to the Wind factory. Its just over there beyond the town," the girl said, pointing to the area. Damion didn't need to hear anymore. He had to get there to help his friends.

...

"I managed to find you guys," Damion finishing his story, "and stopped that lady from attacking you." Dawn looked wide eye. It was a relief that Damion managed to come here in time.

"Wow," Dawn said amazed, "you had an adventure. But you said that Rowan was attacked by Team Galactic right?"

"Yeah," Damion said, shrugging his shoulders, "Like that red-hair lady said she was from right?" Dawn nodded, completely in deep thought.

"Hi guys," Lucas said cheerfully. Damion and Dawn jumped. They hadn't even noticed that Lucas was gone the entire time. "The line finally shortened and I managed to heal everyone's Pokemon." Lucas was clutching an armful of Pokeballs and handed each respectfully to each trainer.

"Thanks Lucas." Dawn put her Pokeballs back into her bag while Damion did the same. "Let's get going now. I don't want to stay here any longer."

"What about the contest?" Lucas asked confused. Dawn rolled her eyes.

"Have you seen that explosion? They had to cancel this competition. I heard it from one of the coordinators. All I know is that I have to go somewhere else if I want to get that ribbon."

"Oh," Damion grinned, "So that means you owe me some money right?" Dawn looked at Damion confused. "Remember, we bet who would win first... so I get the prize money since I won right?" Dawn frowned, remembering, and started to hit Damion. "OW!"

"That doesn't count because of the explosion. I didn't even get a chance to finish the contest, so if you're going to keep claiming that you won, think again," Dawn said, emitting a chilling voice. Lucas gulped and immediately crouched into a defensive position.

"N... n... no, of course not," Damion said, having a truly scared smile on his face.

"In that case," Dawn said, stretching her arms, "Let's go now. You want to get your next badge right?"

"Oh, yeah!" Damion grinned, "I'm definitely going to get two badges before you get your first ribbon."

"I'm in a good mood right now," Dawn said, "So don't push my buttons by saying stupid things."

"Oh, sorry," Damion laughed.

"Come on Lucas," Dawn motioned Lucas who seemed to be lagging behind, "We got to get going!" Lucas grinned and hurried off with his friends.

...

"Well, they left," Shiki said, motioning to the three shadows. Fuuta nodded as he watched from afar. Pachurisu was fast asleep. It was so tired from everything that had happened that even the conversation the two trainers were having didn't stir Pachurisu from its sleep. "Aren't you going to ask Lucas whatever it is you want to ask about?"

"No," Fuuta shrugged, "I'm pretty sure we'll see those two again. In the meantime, I think we should hurry up and send a message to Daniel."

"What for?" Shiki asked, surprised.

"Something strange is going on..." Fuuta muttered, "I need to ask him some questions. In fact I need to speak to him, face to face." He walked off, leaving a confused Shiki behind.

Meeting Lucas who looks exactly like Daniel, strange group attacking them, those memories... something was wrong, and he needed to get to the bottom of this.

...

Lindsay and Kenna were waiting patiently at the hospital when they noticed Jeffery coming up to them.

"Jeffery!" Kenna cried, looking relieved, "Where were you?! I thought you were dead."

"Ha ha, very funny," Jeffery said, "I'm totally fine, I just needed to go to the police station."

"Police station?" Lindsay, listening in to the conversation, "Why?"

"Oh," Jeffery shrugged his shoulders, "no reason in particular." Jeffery, ignoring the confused looks, was thinking about that Tory guy he left and wondered if he was doing the right thing by not saying anything.

...

"This is bad," Mr. Contesta sighed, "I never expected something like this to happen. I'm so sorry for the trouble Cynthia."

"It's okay," Cynthia replied as she surveyed the damage. Right now her mission was to go through the rubble and find any survivors. Garchomp was doing a pretty good job. "The most important thing to do is to make sure no one is hurt now." Cynthia pushed back the bangs that were covering her eyes. Inside her mind, she knew that once she was finish here, she'll need to go and join the investigation with the police. Something about this group and that girl Venus said made Cynthia know that things aren't over yet.

**Author's Notes**

YES! I finish this ARC and it only took 30 something chapters! (now collapse to the ground)

Okay, let's thank my reviewers right now before I forget.

...

thank you

**pct**

**dark5523**

**phantom shadow mask**

**SsX-77**

**xoxbb**

**Pikana**

**RWT**

**Sparky**

**SynctrainerLucas**

**Kingston **(hey! Haven't heard from you for a while. thanks for the review.)

**NightClown07**

**Jarkes**

**gg121 **(Actually I don't know what Lucas will be doing... Guess we'll just have to see! Thanks for reviewing)

**WolfSummoner93**

**Ketchum Kid** (Who is a loudmouth? thanks for reviewing)

**Black Rabbit-Chan**

for reviewing.

...

Well that's it from me. Reminder that my vac. is coming soon. I probably will update one more time before I leave.

See ya!

**-JapanDreamer**


	38. Eterna Forest

**Disclaimer: Yes, I can't own Pokemon.**

Hey guys! I'm back! Lol. I'm sorry that I said in the previous chapter that I'll update one more time before I go to vacation. Sorry! Got too busy with packing. Anyways, school is starting again so once more, slow updates. And then I was really exhausted and slept through the first few days I got back.

I made this chapter longer than I intended to apologize my lateness.

Enjoy the chapter.

**Chapter 35:**

"How much further?" Lucas asked in a very tired voice. It was already late afternoon, almost night time. The hazy red sun was streaming out the last bit of rays through the sky. The moon and a few stars were already out, giving off a pale light on the dirt road that the three travelers were on.

"Stop complaining," Damion snapped as he followed Dawn's lead. She didn't want to walk all the way back to Floaroma Town, and insisted that they find lodge as fast as possible before nightfall comes. There was no luck yet and Dawn was getting more and more irritated. "We'll get there soon." Lucas shrugged his shoulders as he continued to drag his feet. His energy was running out and he just wanted to collapse and sleep on the road, but he figured nobody else would want that. Suddenly, Lucas came to a complete halt and remained still even though Damion and Dawn were already about ten feet away.

"What are you doing?!" Damion yelled, exasperated, "Get moving!"

"Lucas! Please!" Dawn yelled as well.

"Do you guys hear something?" Lucas called back, asking a totally irrelevant question. Damion stopped and pause to listen for a moment. Then he heard it.

_Rustle, rustle, swish, swish... What was that noise?_

Suddenly, a large shadowy looking oval came out of the tall grasses and slammed at Lucas. The surprised boy knocked back and fell to the ground. Before Damion could respond, the large orange torpedo came charging at Dawn and him. "Ahhhh!" Damion got slammed head on and feel to the ground. The strange shadow jumped back in a fighting position. Damion dimly got up and noticed a strange looking weasel Pokemon, looking pumped and smirking.

"A Buizel!" Dawn gasped as she took out her Pokedex. "A Water Pokemon who usually thinks highly of its strength."

"Oh, so you think you're better than me huh?!" Damion yelled, completely furious of Buizel's "I'm – so – much – better – than – you" look. "I'll take you on anytime! Go Monferno!" The fire Pokemon jumped out of its Pokeball. Monferno flexed its fist as it stared down on the Buizel. Together both had a silent showdown.

"Uh, Damion," Dawn remarked, breaking the silence, "Did you forget that fire is weak against water?" It took a second for the realization to sink in.

"Oh," Damion grimaced, "damn." There really wasn't anything else to say.

Buizel immediately set out a Water Gun attack at the fire Pokemon. Monferno quickly jumped out of the way and sent out an Ember attack which pitifully missed as Buizel easily dodge it.

"What the heck?!" Damion gasped. He thought Monferno's attack was pretty fast.

"Buizel is also known for its speed," Dawn also said, as she continued to read her Pokedex. "In rain, Buizel's speed becomes two times faster."

"Oh, gee, thanks for telling me that now," Damion said sarcastically. He turned back his attention to the battle. Monferno is doing a decent job of dodging and attack, but then again so is Buizel. After about five minutes of this charade and Monferno still hasn't land a decent attack on Buizel. Buizel grinned at Monferno's and Damion's frustration.

To tick them off even further, Buizel stuck out its tongue at the two. "Buleh!" Immediately, sparks could been seen from Damion's eyes.

"Oh, now you're making me mad. I'm going to capture you and make your life miserable! Monferno use Mach Punch!" Monferno slammed its fist into Buizel's cheek, causing the Pokemon to slam to the ground. "Now we're even."

Buizel got back up and growled angrily, but Monferno sent another Mach Punch to send it back to the ground. This time, Buizel didn't get up.

"Now to punish you!" Damion threw one of the Pokeball he had at Buizel. The Pokeball rolled several times before finally surrendering. "Yes! Now I can torture him as much as possible!"

Dawn just stared strangely at Damion's happy and hungry face. Looking over, Dawn noticed that Lucas was still on the ground. "Lucas!" Dawn hurried over and crouched next to him. Dawn wondered if that Buizel caused Lucas to be knocked unconscious. "Lucas, say something!"

"Zzzzzzzzzzz....."

...

It was already night time and the moon was giving off a soft glow across the field. There was a light breeze that rustled the tall grass. Despite the peaceful-looking night, there was quite an angry voice that can be heard from miles around.

"And don't you ever fall asleep again. DO I MAKE MYSELF CLEAR?!" Damion yelled behind his shoulder. Despite his happy capture, Lucas had once again, brought Damion great anger.

"Yes sir," Lucas mumbled, rubbing his throat... again. Dawn looked back at the two boys before shaking her head, her temper rising very quickly. She was in no mood to act as the peacemaker. She was tired and wanted to go to bed already. The two were not helping at all and were complaining to stop for the night.

"Hold on a moment." Dawn stopped in front of a very large immense forest. It was so thick that Dawn couldn't even see where the path led to. This is bad. Dawn couldn't believe such a place exist. She actually felt a bit scared. She decided that it was best to camp out at the edge of the forest for the night and continue on in the morning.

Dawn noticed a sign next to the forest that read – "The Eterna Forest – Be Cautious. Especially after Dark." Yup, definitely camping now.

"We're... we're not going in there are we?" Damion asked. There was a shaky tremble in his voice. Dawn turned around and saw Damion stare quite apprehensively at the forest.

"What's the matter? Scared?" Dawn asked, raising an eyebrow. Damion turned red and sputtered. "Of course not!" As if to prove this, he rushed into the forest before Dawn could say a word.

"Damion! STOP! We're camping for the night!" Dawn yelled, but the forest gave back no respond. "I'm going to kill him when I find him!" Dawn rushed into the forest, the darkness swallowing her up.

Lucas paused a moment and stared high up into the treetops. He had a bad feeling about this, but after that sleep attack earlier, he doubt Damion and Dawn would be happy if he stayed behind. But it look so scary in there...

Grugggghle.... Lucas jumped at the noise and started to panic until he realized that it was his stomach. He remembered that he hadn't eaten since breakfast and was so hungry now.

_Maybe I can find food in the forest_. With that thought, Lucas skipped happily down the trail. Floating about thirty meters above was a little strange looking balloon who suddenly dropped down to the ground and followed Lucas into the dark forest.

...

"I said I was sorry!" Damion said for the twentieth time, but Dawn ignored him. After managing to find Damion, who, unsurprisingly, got lost, Dawn herself couldn't figure out how to get out of this forest. The darkness made everything so hard to see since the thick branches of the trees blocked the moonlight. Dawn felt that she was even going around in circles.

"I asked you a simple question and you had to charge in. Are you that stupid?!"

"I said I was sorry!" Damion repeated again for 21 times now

"We need to find Lucas," Dawn groaned, "I think he got lost while trying to follow me."

"Hi guys!" A head popped out of one of the bushes.

"AHHHHH!" Damion and Dawn yelled.

"A ghost!" Damion gasped, "We're going to die!"

"Damion are you okay?" The head asked with great concern. Dawn squinted for a moment and realize that it was Lucas with his Muchlax next to him. Both were covered with some viscous looking stuff on their hand and around their mouth.

"Oh, Damion its just Lucas. You don't need to be scared." Dawn remarked.

"I'm not SCARED! Just surprise that's all," Damion retorted back and quickly changed the subject, "Anyways, what're you eating?"

"Honey!" Lucas said happily as he licked his mouth, "Muchlax helped me find them." Muchlax responded by yawning, revealing a sticky mouth. Damion couldn't help but drool a bit.

"Wait, how did you get a bunch of honey?" Dawn asked, confused.

"Oh, I got some from this hive," Lucas explained. Before Dawn could figure out what he meant by that, there was a large buzzing sound coming from behind. Suddenly, a large swarm of Combee and Beedrill appeared, all looking very, very, angry.

"In fact," Lucas continued calmly, as Dawn and Damion looked horrified at the swarm, "I'm trying to escape from them right now and I just bumped into you."

"You should've told us that earlier!" Dawn and Damion immediately ran away, with Lucas and Muchlax trailing behind. The swarm followed them, buzzing fiercely and not losing speed.

"Move, move, move!" Dawn yelled at Lucas who was still moving too slow. Suddenly, Beedrill and Combee were already right over Damion's and Dawn's head. The wild Pokemon started to sting the defenseless trainers.

"Okay, that's it!" Damion groaned, "Monferno, Flame Wheel!" A huge flash of fire appeared. The Pokemon immediately recoiled at the attack and flew away in a great hurry.

"Phew, that was close," Dawn sighed.

"I'm going to kill Lucas! Where is that guy?!" Damion looked back, but there was nobody there. "Oh, great we lost him again!"

...

Lucas had run off in the other direction, hoping to move the bug Pokemon away from his friends. But now that he did, Lucas didn't really know how to get rid of them.

"Chansey! Sing now!" There was a lulling beautiful music filling the air. Lucas stopped in his track, spell bound by the sound. In fact so were the bug Pokemon after him. The music was so calming, so peaceful, so... The next thing Lucas knew, he was on the ground, being shaken awake by a strange looking girl with a Chansey next to her.

"Good you're awake." Lucas looked up to see the 26 year old girl with long thick green braided hair that went to her waist. She was wearing a light green jacket over her dress that was brown as a tree's bark from her shoulder to the waist and spread out in a dark green color. Her brown boots were covered heavily with dust. On her shoulders was a small brown backpack. "I must say, I never though this attack would work on people as well.

Lucas yawned and blinked several times before getting up. "Thanks for your help... um..."

"Cheryl," the girl helped, "Its embarrassing, but I got lost here. I came to this forest to collect some Honey, though I must say you did a pretty good job of it."

"Yeah, well I was hungry," Lucas explained, "Muchlax helped me find something to eat." He nodded to the still sleeping Pokemon who was snoring quite loudly.

"Well, perhaps we should stick together," Cheryl said, "You're lost too huh?"

"I was traveling with my friends," Lucas said, "We got separated."

"In that case," Cheryl said, smiling kindly, "Let's both try to get out of here and maybe we'll find your friends." Lucas thought for a moment. The lady was pretty nice as to help him and it would be easier to find his friend if he was with a partner.

"That's sounds like a good idea."

...

"Now we're even more lost," Dawn groaned. Damion looked glumly at the darkness. He wanted to get out of here fast too, but that didn't seem possible. Plus, he felt totally tired and wanted to sleep. "Wait did you see that?" Dawn asked, pointing somewhere down the forest.

Damion squinted and was about to say no until he too saw it.

"Lights!" Damion gasped. He and Dawn ran down, until the lights suddenly gotten brighter and brighter. They came across a clearing and saw a large mansion in front of them.

"Oh my gosh! There is a house here!" Dawn couldn't believe her luck. Damion grinned too, until he realize that there was something wrong with this house. The gate was swinging, large vines growing around it. The garden in front of the house was obviously untended for who know how long and the house had obviously been broken down.

"Dawn," Damion said, "I think its best we keep moving."  
"Damion," Dawn said angrily, "I'm tired, I'm hungry, I just been chased by some wild Pokemon. We're going to stay at this house for a while before I lose my temper again. Besides, its just a house. What could go wrong?" With that she marched down he gravel path that led to the door. Damion gulped, and slowly followed her. In one of the windows a shadowy figure was watching the two trainers.

**Author's Notes**

Pleasant things are happening now. lol.

Okay, again, I'm really busy and when I got back from vacation, I was like OMG! So many emails!

I'm afraid I'll have to skip all the names of the people who review, but thank you all who reviewed.

I can't say when the next update is, but please be patient. This story will not die unless I write it down so anyone can read it.

Now I must go back and catch up on my work. Don't you just love school? XP

**-JapanDreamer**


	39. What Could Go Wrong in a Hauted House?

**Disclaimer: I really want to say something funny, but I'm afraid you'll start laughing and spray coffee all over the screen. I don't own Pokemon.**

Hey guys, thank you for being so patient. Been in school and for a while and finally starting to get it under control. At least on Friday I only have one class. XP

Anyways, again, slow and short update but be patient.

Oh yes, before I forget. **CONGRATS ON REACHING OVER 600 REVIEWS!** Now let's move to 700! lol. thank you all for making this possible. Let's see if we can get to 1000 in ten chapters. That is if you can.

Enjoy the chapter!

**Chapter 36:**

"Dawn I really hate this place," Damion muttered as he looked at the damp and gloomy looking front garden.

Everything seemed to be untended for more than a century. Bushes were growing wild, all over the place. The trees seemed to sag under the weight of the heavy branches. Dark forest green vines curled around statues made from eroded gray concrete though Damion could make out what looked like a half of a Jigglypuff and a headless Torchic from two of the statues. The grass hasn't been mowed and easily brushed against the knee of Damion's long pants. The gravel path made crunching noises as Damion and Dawn walked along the way which didn't really help the mood.

"Look, I'm tired," Dawn said, losing her patience, "I don't want to hang out in the forest after that incident with Lucas and for all I know, he could be in the building, hiding from those bug Pokemon. So either come on in or stay out here."

"I'm going," Damion said, "But it doesn't mean I have to like it." Dawn rolled her eyes and walked across the weathered wooden porch. The faded red door was still intact as though defying anyone who entered. Dawn and Damion stared at the door before both of them noticed the doorbell.

"Err, should we ring?" Damion asked in a way that he knew he wouldn't get an answer… or so he thought. Immediately after those words, the door clicked from within and swung open as if to invite a guest into this gloomy house.

"Okay, now I'm really freaked out," Dawn said, in a nervous way, "It's almost as if… Damion?" Dawn looked around and noticed that Damion was about ten feet away from the door, looking as though he was about to make a run for it. "How did you get way over there?"

"Fast reflex," Damion said, still eyeing the door with fear. "Dawn, please don't say that we have to go in there." Dawn looked into the dark room that seemed to be whispering softly as wind creep through the cracks in the windows. There was something spooky and even Dawn wanted to leave, but still, the creepy Eterna Forest seemed to make this house look more like a vacation.

"Okay, I'm not going to say that we're going in there. I'm ordering us." With that, Dawn walked straight into the house. Damion stared at with horror as Dawn went in. The gray clouds that covered the starry night growled as a warning. In a nervous state, Damion walked into the house and immediately the door slammed shut.

…

"I never camped out in a forest like this before," Lucas remarked as he listened to the rumbling rolls of thunder through the depths of the forest. The clouds covered the pale white moon so finding their way around in the dark was much harder. Cheryl had a small lantern that emitted a strong flame from within. Although they were staying on the path, it seemed to take forever to find the exit and it was almost decided that they would spend the night.

Both of them were now sitting under one of the large trees, cowering closer to the lantern for some warmth for the night was getting chillier. A fine mist was spreading around, making the flame look dimmer than before. Lucas' Turtwig and Muchlax were snoring peacefully next to Cheryl's Chansey. Lucas's statement caused Cheryl to look up with amusement.

"Are you a city boy?" she asked. Lucas stared puzzled at the question.

"City boy?" Cheryl rolled her eyes skeptically though her eyes were filled with laughter and her mouth was curled up in a small smile. She wrapped her arms around her legs and rocked back and forth as if to think of a better way of explaining.

"That means," Cheryl explained, "You always been in the city, never went out on an adventure or nature walk."  
"Oh," Lucas paused as he thought of all those years in that place… "I suppose so…" Cheryl waited to see if Lucas had anything more to say but after a few minutes of silence, she decided to change the subject.

"The weather is getting worse, so I suggest that we find some shelter and get some rest. We'll find your friends in the morning." Cheryl frowned a bit though. She never been exploring here at night and she wished she brought camping equipment during such times but usually she never tried to stay out too late. Sleeping out here in the dark is not exactly the best choice.

"Is there anyone who lives here?" Lucas asked as if he could read Cheryl's mind.

"No," Cheryl admitted reluctantly, "But there is an abandoned mansion here."

"Great," Lucas said, happily, "We can sleep there tonight."

"Actually," Cheryl said quickly, "Its better if we don't."

"Why?" Lucas looked puzzled at Cheryl's nervousness. Cheryl leaned closer to Lucas' face as if she was about to tell a scary story. Her eyes were darting back and forth from one side to another.

"That place… was rumored to be haunted," Cheryl said in a whisper as if she was afraid someone or something was watching them. "The people who lived in there were really wealthy and built that mansion, but one day they all disappeared. No one knows what happened and people who tried to buy and live there had to leave because of all the strange appearances of ghosts and… moving objects. It was like the house was possessed or something."

Lucas looked fearfully at Cheryl. "Oh no! Maybe Dawn and Damion went in! And then they got locked! And then the ghost get them! And then we'll find their bodies buried! And then we realize that their soul has been taken! And then-"

"Calm down Lucas!" Cheryl exclaimed, regretting telling the story, "Your friends couldn't be that desperate enough to go in. I mean, who would go into a haunted mansion on a night like this?"

…

"Damion, you can let go of me now," Dawn said in a slightly angry tone. After the door slammed shut on them. Damion yelped with surprise and was hugging Dawn like an Aipom on a tree.

"Sh… shut up! I was just a little bit surprised, that's all." Damion blushed red as he stepped away from Dawn.

"Rightttt." Dawn quickly opened her bag and found a flashlight that she packed. She turned it on and noticed the room was obviously decorated lavishly, but obviously deteriorating. Cobwebs and dust seemed to fill the grand room. Large statues gave a ghostly appearance and looked as though they were going to speak. Artificial potted plants were turning faded green and webs seemed to cover them like wrapping paper. The tile floor looked grimy as if the cleaning crew just decided to abandon the work all of a sudden. Two large staircases from each side of the mansion lead to upstairs. There was a red carpet in the main hall that rolled down straight to a hallway straight in front of Dawn.

"Let's see what's down this hall," Dawn said, pointing to the hallway.

"Are you crazy?!" Damion yelled, "We shouldn't be here in the first place." But Dawn didn't hear Damion and walked down the hallway until the darkness consumed her and the light. Damion looked nervously at the darkened room. It was almost as though they were going to slowly encircling him. "Wait up Dawn!" Damion was so frightened that he didn't notice the little light that was emitting out of one of the room upstairs

The little light floated down the stairs and looked straight into the hallway where the two trainers had walked off. It gave off an evil smile. Suddenly surrounding him was a gang of angry eyes that were also staring at the hallway and smiles like that of the light.

Perfect, now to scare some more people.

**Author's Notes**

DUN DUN DUNNNNNNNNN! lol.

I sense great fun in the next chapter. None of which will be to the please of Damion. XP

Anyways, I'm sorry that I couldn't thank any of you in the last chapter. Again, my excuse is my work load. I'll still do the quick thank you, but please, don't be mad that I didn't PM to thank you reviewing.

...

Thank you

**dark5523**

**Pikana**

**Sparky**

**grammaguy**

**SynctrainerLucas**

**phantom shadow mask**

**Aiko**

**SsX-77**

**Jarkes **(Can I still call you Jarkes or do you want me to write Jarkes The Sage of Iron?)

**Pokemon Absol**

**gg121**

**xoxbb**

**RWT**

**NightClown07  
**

**Ketchum Kid**

for reviewing

...

Whew, that took a while. I promise to thank you this time if you review. Again. I apologize for the delay.

see you in the next chapter!

**-JapanDreamer**


	40. Evil and Dreams Again

**Disclaimer: This human doesn't own Pokemon**

Hi everyone. I'm so sorry for updating so late. My comp crashed and data was.... AHHHHHHH! Anyways, backup was a slow and painful process.

I made this chapter a bit longer than usual to make up the lateness.

Heart Gold and Soul Silver is OUT! YES! Just six more years till I saved enough money to buy it. lol.

enjoy the chapter and remember my author notes!

**Chapter 37:**

"Wow, I'm surprise this place is still intact," Dawn said, amused at the dining room. The cobwebs have covered the furniture like fishing net. The dark mahogany brown long antique table and chairs were lined up perfectly and non-lit white candles lined up in the middle. A large chandelier hung from the ceiling. White dusty plates and glass cups with tarnished silver utensils looked as if it hasn't been touched for more than a century. The red carpet spread out underneath the table and there was tile floor that looked as if it hasn't been washed at all.

Dawn noticed large dark colored paintings of people were hanging on dark navy blue paintings. There was one that stood out the most to Dawn. It showed a family portrait. There was a young girl with long brown curly hair in a frilly pink dress with a large pink bow, a mother in blue dress who looked identical to her daughter, and a father with a gray grimy tuxedo. There was even a grandfather in a green tuxedo whose pink bald head seemed to be the only thing that seemed to be the only thing shiny in the room. The thing that was bothering Dawn was that the family was grim looking. No one was smiling or even giving a hint of joy in their eyes. It was a bit creepy.

"Dawnnnnnnnn…" Damion whispered fearfully, "What are you looking at?"

"That picture," Dawn pointed to the picture and Damion looked at it with curiosity, "They look so angry. I'm going to look at the kitchen and see if they have anything there." Before Damion could object, Dawn went off with the only flashlight.

"Dawn!" Damion yelled, but now it was too dark to even follow her… but there was a nice dim light giving off by that nice old man next to those two chairs. Wait what?! Damion looked over there and noticed to his shock, a ghostly looking old man who looked like that grandpa in the picture.

That old man in the green tuxedo was walking down with a limp and holding a long brown cane. He turned his head so very slowly and stared straight at Damion. "Hello."

…

Dawn noticed the kitchen was really large as a restaurant. Twenty chefs could fit in here and there were five refrigerators. Dawn opened one of the refrigerators and noticed that there was food in there that smelled pretty bad.

"Eww, you would think that they would at least get rid of the food," Dawn muttered and quickly closed the broken down refrigerators.

"AHHHHHHHHH!" Dawn whipped around and immediately ran out of the kitchen to notice Damion on the ground, pointing to the air. Dawn looked around and didn't see anything, only darkness where the light of the flashlight wasn't hitting.

"Damion! Why in the world are you screaming for?"

"That grandfather from the picture was right there! A GHOST!" Damion yelled that last part. Dawn stared at Damion and looked at the place where Damion pointed and didn't see anything.

"Damion, did you hallucinate again like that time at camp two years ago?"  
"Hey! That Skitty actually went through the wall!" Damion objected.

"Yeah, sure," Dawn rolled her eyes. "Come on Damion. Let's go upstairs and see if there is a place to sleep."

"NO!" Damion objected.

"And why not?" Dawn asked, her eyes shot up.

"Because these ghosts will come here and murder us!" Damion stated. There was a very awkward silence. "Okay, that didn't sound right."

"GOSH!" Dawn groaned, "Stay here and awake for tonight. I'm going to go to bed." Dawn stomped off back to the hallway, leaving Damion alone again. Damion groaned as he got up.

"Okay, relax," Damion sighed, "It's all just in my mind. I can do this. I can do this."

"Grrrrrr." Damion froze. He turned around and noticed some large rectangular box coming towards him like some sort of zombie. "Grrr," the box said again. Damion realized that the strange box is actually an orange refrigerator with large white evil eyes. The strange refrigerator opened the giant door and spewed out a blast of ice at the pale freaked out Damion. Suddenly, the tables and chairs started to rise and spin around as though sucked in a tornado. The candles suddenly lighted up and became a tornado with flame streaks.

The possessed refrigerator, chairs, and the table started to tower closer and closer till finally Damion finally remembered his voice.

"AHHHHHHHHHH! DAWNNNNNNNN!" Damion, the snowman, ran out like his hair was on fire.

"Tee hee!" The refrigerator giggled now and all of a sudden the strange orange light came out and the orange refrigerator became the white refrigerator that Dawn seen in the kitchen. The table and chairs immediately stopped spinning and fell back into their original place as though nothing has disturbed them. Suddenly, Gastly appeared from the darkness out of nowhere. They crowded around the orange light and started to laugh in a menacing tone, pleased with their work. The little orange electrical strange Pokemon grinned as well.

"Rotom, hehehehehe," it said.

…

"Hello Lucas." Lucas realized that he was in the middle of the white place again. The place where he was standing was making white ripples. He looked around the place and noticed the girl in green again. She floated close to the bewildered Lucas. "My power has temporarily gained back thanks to this forest's power."

"So, can you explain what is happening?" Lucas asked, concerned. The girl shook her brown long hair as if to hide her laughter and look back at Lucas.

"Time is a very mysterious power. We can move forward, not backward. But…" The girl paused a moment as if regretting something. "Sometimes the future is worse than the past. I'm sorry you just have to get caught up in this.

"You know the future. It is your choice whether or not to change it." With that the girl closed her eyes and suddenly the white room turned into a large forest. The same Eterna forest. "I need to rest from this weak journey."

"What?" Lucas asked, surprised. The scenery moved, following a path down to a deeper part of the forest until it came upon a shrine. It seemed to be made of old wood. And inside is empty but with a wave of the girl's hand, green light started to shine through.

"Please help. I need to go back." With that the girl disappeared, leaving Lucas alone again before the bright light blinded Lucas again and Lucas woke up to see the tall branches and leaves with the starry night. Lucas rubbed his head as he got up. His droopy eyes made the whole place look darker than before.

"Something wrong?" Cheryl asked, rubbing her eyes, noticing Lucas' movement. "It is almost midnight." Lucas shrugged his shoulder.

"Can I ask you something?" Lucas asked, drowsily, still trying to remember the dream clearly.

"Well, since I'm awake… I guess so," Cheryl replied, yawning, trying to rub her eyes. Her long hair was flowing down her shoulder. She took the lantern and lighted up. "What's up?"

"Have you ever seen a shrine here?" Lucas questioned, trying to remember why he needed to go again… oh, yeah, that dream.

"Yeah, there is one here supposing," Cheryl said.

"Supposing?" Lucas repeated blankly.

"There is a legend that a legendary Pokémon comes as its home. However, unfortunately, the legendary Pokemon has a barrier around and it seems to be unseen by others," Cheryl explained, "In fact, that is the other reason why I spend quite a bit of time here. I was hoping to see the legendary Pokémon."

"Really," Lucas felt uneasy.

"Why you ask?" Cheryl questioned.

"Um, a friend of mine asked me to find it," Lucas said, feeling a bit relieved that it was sort of true. Cheryl looked curiously at Lucas for a moment before she shrugged her shoulders.

"If you want," Cheryl said, "tomorrow morning we can walk around and see if we find it, but first we need to find your friends right?"

"Yeah," Lucas said quickly, "of course."

"And don't be surprised if we don't find it," Cheryl said, "Let's not get our hopes up too high."

"Okay," Lucas nodded before collapsing and snored softly. Cheryl rolled her eyes and tried not to laugh. What a funny guy. Asking questions and then immediately fell asleep. Cheryl lied back down slowly and closed her eyes. She listened to the silent chirping sounds of the night before sleep took over.

…

Dawn walked up the stairs to the second floor. Every step she took made dust puff out of the carpet as though it was breathing. She flashed the light until she noticed the entrance to another hallway. She walked in and saw doors all lined up in a row across from her. Without hesitation, she opened the door right across from her and to her surprise; there was a nice fancy bedroom, ready for her.

"Great," Dawn said happily. She was about to drop her stuff when she noticed some loud noise that sounded like it was coming from downstairs.

"DAWNNNNNNNNN!"

"Oh no," Dawn groaned, "not again."

**Author's Notes**

HAHAHAHAHA! SO much fun.

Oh yes, I wanted to ask something. I'm going to do double battles (because why not?) but I want to know if anyone wants to offer their OC/or make OCs for this. I might only do one battle, but let me know if you allow me to use yours. This will be my first double battle scene (I think) and I really look forward in trying it out.

Anyways, let's thank my reviewers.

...

thank you

**Ketchum Kid**

**RWT**

**phantom shadow mask**

**Pikana**

**Lady Airashii Mentsu 67**

**SynctrainerLucas**

**SsX-77**

**gg121**

**Jarkes**

**()**

**BuzzingBumbleBri**

**Sparky**

for reviewing.

...

thanks so much for waiting patiently.

I'll see you in the next chapter.

**-JapanDreamer**


	41. The Fan that Brings Great Flames

**Disclaimer: In the dark hauted house, there is no owning Pokemon.**

Hi guys! Sorry for the delay, but I decided to take it a little bit slow so I can write better.

Anyways, anyone who reads **Crystal **story, please help me if you have the new HG/SS game and know the storyline. I want to imput some of the new stuff in the next chapter. thanks!

I'm still waiting for doubles requests if anyone still want to enter. I'll probably start in the next chapter. so hurry!

enjoy the chapter.

**Chapter 38:**

"Let me get this straight," Dawn said, looking very intently at Damion, "An orange refrigerator attacked you with a blast of snow and then those chairs and table started to spin in a tornado. Then those forks and knives started to attack you like crazy."

Dawn was sitting down on the bed, feeling slightly irritated. She opened the window after the dust started to clog in her throat and decided to use her sleeping bag as a blanket instead of the bug infested one on the bed. Damion was sitting in one of the mahogany chairs next to the drawer with a cracked mirror.

"Yes, and then a blast of fire came spinning toward me," Damion said, using hand gestures as part of the story telling, "And then a blast ice attacked me. See?!" Damion showed his still white snow flaked hair. The icicle melted and the water drops dripped to the ground.

"I see. In normal people's eyes, one would assume that you stick your head in the freezer too long. But then again, we could also say that a huge weather change appeared in the kitchen," Dawn nodded like a psychiatrist, "Just one question, how delusional were you when this happened?" Damion gaped for a moment before he realize what Dawn was implying.  
"HEY!" Damion protested, "I'm telling you! This is the truth!" Damion waved his hands around like crazy. "The refrigerator came charging at me! It looked possessed like a-a-a-a-a… ghost." Damion winced at the word.

"Whatever," Dawn rolled her eyes. She got up and brushed the dust off of her dress. "I love to listen to the rest of your story, but it's late. I'm going to bed, so just sleep in the other room."

"NO!" Damion yelled. Dawn stared a couple of moments at his freaked out face.

"Okay, you can sleep in here and I'll sleep in the other room."

"NO!" Damion said again. Dawn stared again.

"Okay, if you say no again, you can sleep outside with a couple of bones broken and I'll sleep here."

"Nnnnnn…. NOPE!" Damion improvised in mid-word, "Look Dawn, I think we should sleep in the same room just in case if some creepy happens again." Dawn rolled her eyes.

"You're sleeping on the floor." And with that Dawn went to the bathroom. "I'm changing so don't come in." With that, the door slammed shut. Damion groaned as he glanced around. He looked around and suddenly noticed an orange fan that seemed to be out of place.

That's so weird. The color looked like the color of the refrig..erator… Damion stared at it before he realized that the blades were turning so ever slowly in a haunting rhythm. Suddenly the fan started to rise and the blades move faster and faster. Suddenly the power started to blast at Damion, immediately drying his wet hair and the blanket and chairs started to move toward the opposite side.

"DAWNNNNNNN!" Dawn ran out, in her pink nightgown and curlers in her hair.

"What?! What?!" Dawn yelled and suddenly noticed the fan moving like crazy. The curlers blew off her hair which start to dance crazy around, covering her face. "What is going on?!"

"That's what I was talking about!" Damion yelled, sputtering as dust blew down his throat.

"Well don't just stand there!" Dawn yelled back. She rushed to her bag and threw out her Pokeball. "Piplup, Bubble attack!"The little penguin came out and started to spray a large bubble stream but the wind was so strong that it just flew back and popped.

"Okay that's not going to work." Damion pulled out his Pokeball. Monferno came out and immediately had to lie on the ground because the wind was getting stronger. "Monferno use Flame Wheel."

"NO!" Dawn yelled. But Monferno covered itself with flames and charged at the strange orange fan. The good news was that Monferno managed to hit it; the bad news was that the wind caused the flames to become so strong that the room started to catch on fire. The fan immediately changed and suddenly turned from orange to a normal white and gray dust fan.

"Oops," Damion said. He didn't expect the fire to spread so much.

"Yeah, oops is right!" Dawn yelled. "Piplup use Bubble again!" Piplup sprayed the Bubble attack everywhere, but the fire was still getting stronger. "Damion get Buizel out!"

"Why?" Damion roared, trying to stamp the fire out with his foot.

"BECAUSE BUIZEL IS A WATER POKEMON IDIOT!" Dawn yelled. "Aipom, Sand Attack!" Aipom immediately started to stop the fire by flinging sand.

"Oh, that's right!" Damion took out his Pokeball. "Buizel Water Gun!" The orange weasel came out, looking just as haughty as ever. It noticed the small Piplup trying to stop the fire and couldn't help but laugh. Piplup turned around in anger just as Buizel showed off and immediately blasted water from its mouth to the fire.

Immediately the fire started to diminish. Buizel continued until all of the flames were gone and all that was left was a soot cover burnt room.

"Phew," Dawn sighed, "that is a relief. Buizel did a good job." Buizel grinned as it crossed its arm and puffed out its chest proudly, causing Piplup to be even more infuriated.

"Piplup! Pip! Pip!" Piplup chirped. Dawn patted the water Pokemon's head.

"You did great too Piplup. We'll improve your water technique," Dawn said. Buizel stuck out its tongue behind Dawn's back so she couldn't see but the angry Piplup could.

"Good thing we have a strong water Pokémon," Damion grinned. "Buizel return." Piplup pouted and sulked refusing to look at Dawn and Damion. Dawn shook her head as she returned Piplup and Aipom to their respected Pokeball.

"Anyways, what was that fan?" Dawn said, trying to change topics. She stared at the fan that used to be orange.

"It's the same kind of orange color that the refrigerator was when it attacked me. I'm telling you," Damion said, "There is something strange going around here."

"Okay, I believe you, but we need to get our rest. We'll explore in the morning," Dawn said as she picked up the now black curlers from the ground.

"Wait, explore?" Damion asked, not believing what he just heard.

"Yeah," Dawn said, "This is so mysterious! I definitely want to solve the mystery as to what is going on around here."

"But what about Lucas?" Damion trying to think of an excuse not to check out the scary mansion.

"We'll find him," Dawn said, "Besides what are the chances we'll be able to check out a place like this again? There so much mystery in this place that I feel like we should explore a bit."  
"But-" Damion tried to protest.

"But no," Dawn intervene, "Remember what I said if you said no again. Oh and you're staying up for the first half of the night to stand guard." With that Dawn turned off the light and slept on the bed, leaving Damion alone in the dark.

This was going to be a long standing guard night. Damion wrapped the sleeping bag around him, praying that it would be Dawn's turn soon.

…

In the next room, a large T.V. was glowing brightly blue, flickering ever so often. Inside was a strange black picture of a orange gourd shape with electric shape sticking out.

Rotom gasped, relieved that it managed to escape. Those two were a lot tougher than he thought. The fire almost damaged it if it had not moved out of the fan and escaped in the next room. Gastly were a little worry about the fire and decided not to intervene.

Okay, there was no need to panic. There was only a slight glitch in the plan. Tomorrow will be better. There was so much evil revenge to sort out before the big day which involves a lawn mower, a washer, and an oven.

Yes, an oven.

…

Drifloon drifted so lonely in the forest. It lost the three trainers during that strange bee attack and hadn't found them since. Taking a deep breath, it pushed forward until suddenly, a large gust of wind blew, forcing it to move with it. Drifloon managed to grab hold of a branch with its long string arms. Finally the wind died down a bit and it slowly released and drifted again.

As Drifloon continued on, it noticed a bright red light coming up ahead. Feeling excited it quickly floated toward the light and to its surprise, found the person it was looking for. Drifloon slowly stand guard, waiting patiently for its friend to wake up.

**Author's Notes**

I figured we need to put in some more Drifloon parts. The next chapter will be very long. (hopefully) I'm looking forward to seeing what Rotom can do with an oven. lol

let's thank my reviewers.

...

**Pikana**

**WolfSummoner93**

**phantom shadow mask**

**SsX-77**

**gg121**

**SynctrainerLucas**

**Hoshi** (hey, long reviews are good. What's wrong with long reviews anyways? I'm glad the previous chapter made your day. thanks for the review.)

**Sparky**

**Ketchum Kid** (lol. if you're scared of that wait till the next chapter. Anyways, thanks for the review. We'll just have to see about the shrine later.)

**Katie** (thanks for the review!)

**Jarkes**

**RWT**

**SquirrelGirl8**

...

Okay, thanks for the reviews and I'll see you in the next chapter.

**-JapanDreamer**


	42. Here We Go Again

**Disclaimer: A non-owning Pokemon person is typing this.**

Hey guys! How is it going? Good news. This chapter is longer than usual. I enjoyed writing this chapter a lot. And a lot of devlopment in this part.

Enjoy the chapter!

**Chapter 39:**

"Mmmmphhhh," Lucas groaned as he opened his eyes really slowly. As he looked up, he saw green leaves and brown branches which tried its best to cover the sunlight which continued pour through, causing Lucas to squint and wince once In a while.

After a while of dazing, Lucas started to realize that there were a purple round shape hovering over him and two black dots staring down like… like eyeballs.

"Oh!" Lucas said astounded. He suddenly realized that it was a Drifloon appear. "Good morning!" Cheryl heard Lucas' surprised voice and she woke up. Cheryl's long, slightly frayed hair stuck out in different places. She noticed to her surprise a wild Drifloon staring straight down at Lucas' face.

"A Drifloon!" Cheryl gasped in amazement. "What is this Pokemon doing here? This type of Pokemon doesn't live here."

"OH!" Lucas said again, remembering now, "You're that Drifloon I met in Floaraoma!" Drifloon looked happy at Lucas' recognition and out of sheer job, hugged Lucas with happiness.

"Flooon!" Drifloon's long string and yellow heart hands wrapped around Lucas' shoulder.

"Awwwww, thanks for the hug," Lucas smiled. Cheryl laughed as she watched Lucas and Drifloon hug.

"Lucas," Cheryl said, "did you lose Drifloon?" Lucas looked surprise at this question.

"Oh, well, no… I think it just likes me…" Lucas trailed off, puzzled. Drifloon responded by cuddling against the hopeless trainer. Cheryl couldn't help but grin at the panicking look on Lucas' face.

"Do you have a Pokeball?" Cheryl asked. Dimwitted, Lucas, who didn't understand what Cheryl was implying, nodded and pulled it out. Before he could do anything more, Drifloon pushed the Pokeball button with its 'X' shaped nose and got sucked in.

"….huh?" Lucas gaped as the Pokeball rolled slightly before making a ding noise.

"Congrats," Cheryl grinned, "Drifloon is now your Pokemon."

…

Dawn was certainly glad once morning has arrived. She didn't get much sleep after what happened, and despite her headache, she wanted to start investigating. After investigating most of the rooms, Dawn found only bedrooms like the one she was in or small offices with large bookshelves stacked with volumes of dusty and spider webbed books.

Today was quite a bit sunny, yet instead of giving a warm feeling, the sunlight seemed to make the house a bit strange, as if it wasn't accustom to yellow light streaming through the windows. Dawn could see dust particles dancing as if under a spotlight. She was excited into figuring out about this strange ghost problem in this apparent haunted house, but unfortunately, Damion wasn't in the mood.

"I'm tireddddd and hungryyyyy," Damion groaned. His head was bobbing up and down slowly and his eyes were closed while they were walking. "Oh no. I'm starting to feel like Lucas."

"Quite complaining," Dawn snapped as she opened another door, and to her disappointment found only an empty room with a couple of open cardboard boxes. "Nothing interesting here."

"Dawn give it up. There is nothing here that will help us solve this case. Face it. It's just simply haunted."

"Damion go downstairs and start investigating. I'll finish up here." Dawn replied, ignoring Damion's comment. Damion grumbled and turned to the hallways that lead to the staircase. Dawn could hear him, clearly in a bad mood, going down the stairs. Dawn went to the last door she hasn't tried yet – the door next to her room. She opened it cautiously. To her surprise, she found the room with a bed with dark navy blue sheets. There were a couple of books about science on the shelves and pictures of outer space and rockets posted on the wall with duct tape that was slightly peeling off. Like everywhere else, there was dust and cobwebs. Judging by the looks, the room was probably for a boy.

_Strange,_ Dawn thought, _the picture I saw didn't have a boy in it_. She opened the door even wider and suddenly noticed a television that was strangely flickering with static. _Okay, even stranger… I thought this place doesn't get electricity anymore…_

Dawn peered intently at the television but after a while, decided that there was nothing much. She straightened her back and accidently knocked down a book that was lying on top of the television. She quickly picked it up and noticed that it wasn't a book, but a notebook. Curious, Dawn opened the book and found scrawny handwriting that was hard to decipher. She sat down on the bed and read the story.

…

Damion grumbled as he slammed the door of what appeared to be a closet. "This sucks. I can't believe I have to deal with this." He opened another door and found that it was too dark to see anything. He needed light to see through this dark place, but Dawn had the flashlight, so... "Monferno go!" The monkey appeared from Damion's Pokeball and its small tail brought light to the room. There were rows of dust layered white washing machines as if they were soldiers standing straight in army.

"So this is where they wash clothes… did they even have technology like this back then…?" Damion wondered as he walked in. Monferno stayed close to him, looking around as well. Damion looked at each washing machine to see if there was any hidden clue. It was when he noticed an inconsistency of color that he realized something was wrong. Suddenly the whole tiled floor was becoming very wet.

"AHHHHHHHH!" Damion and Monferno ran out and slammed the doors right behind him.

"What?! What?!" Dawn yelled, running down the stairs, "Damion what's going on?!" Damion noticed that she was clutching on to a book that he never seen before. Damion could feel the door rumbling behind him as if trying to push open, but he remained firm.

"I… you better duck and cover," Damion said and before he could say anything else the force finally opened the door, causing him and Monferno to fly right over Dawn and landed on the stairs. Dawn didn't have time to react before a huge blast of water slammed into her.

"AHHHHH!" Dawn yelled as the water tried to swallow her up. Holding her breath, she tried to swim to the stairs and to safety but the current was too strong. She was being swept into the hallway that leaded to the dining room.

"DAWN!" Damion yelled. "Monferno return. Go Buizel!" The weasel water Pokemon replaced the fire monkey and after a few seconds to understand the situation, jumped into the water to save Dawn. "Hurry up Buizel!" But all of a sudden, Buizel got shot back out and landed next to Damion.

"What the -?" Damion looked up and saw to his horror, the same orange color only this time in a washing machine mode. "Are you some kind of morphing robot?!"

…

Meanwhile, Dawn was losing oxygen. She quickly reached into her bag and took out a Pokeball. Piplup shot out of the Pokeball and was almost swept away if Dawn hadn't caught it. With effort, Piplup tried to swim with Dawn holding on to it. Piplup felt its power losing and noticed that its trainer was starting to lose conscious. Suddenly, Dawn's grip slackened and she was pushed away from Piplup.

"Piplup!" The small blue penguin desperately swam, trying to reach Dawn. It was too small, it was too slow. If only it could move faster. If only it could be as strong as Buizel. If only… Before Piplup realized, it was starting to glow.

…

"Buizel Water Gun! Staraptor use Wing Attack!" Both Pokemon aimed their attack at the floating washing machine but it simply dodged. Damion couldn't help but feel frustrated. Dawn needed help but with the strong water current going in was suicide, plus this orange robot wasn't going to let any of them pass. Suddenly the washing machine sent out an immense blast of water that crashed right at Damion, almost knocking him out of the stairs and back into the water.

Damion sputtered as his Pokemon continued to attack. This wasn't good. Dawn hasn't surfaced yet. He had no choice but to go in the water and try to save her. He was about to jump in when something came out of the water. Buizel, Staraptor, and the orange machine stared in surprise as this strange monster landed next to Damion and was holding a slightly unconscious Dawn.

"Prinplup!" The Pokemon cried. Its blue flippers suddenly glowed bright and charged right at the unguarded washing machine. The force cause the two to crash against the window, break the glass, and outside to the back garden.

"Dawn!" Damion cried as Dawn coughed and sputtered out water. Her clothes dripped water heavily to the ground.

"I'm fine," Dawn said, after catching her breath, "I just can't believe it. My Piplup…"

"Save it for later," Damion said, "We need to stop that stupid machine and your… um… mega-evolved Piplup is going to need all the help it can get. Let's go team!" Buizel dived into the water and opened the front door to let the water out while Staraptor flew through the broken window. "Come on," Damion groaned, lifting Dawn up, "Let's go." With that both of them hurried out of the door.

…

"According to my compass and map," Cheryl said, "The last reported sighting of the shrine should be around here." She looked up and noticed, unsurprised, at the lack of a shrine. "I'm sorry, but it looks like we'll need to search somewhere else."

Lucas, however, walked cautiously forward. It has to be here. The memory said it would be here. Almost immediately, a, immense fog appeared.

"Lucas? Lucas!" Before Cheryl could reach out and grab Lucas' hand. The fog swallowed him up and all Cheryl got was air. "LUCAS!" She rushed forward but Lucas was gone. As sudden as it had come, the fog disappeared. Lucas was nowhere to be seen. Cheryl quickly took out her Pokeball and summoned her Chansey. "Come on. We need to find Lucas!"

…

"Cheryl?" Lucas said, noticing nothing but whiteness all around him. "Cheryl?" But all Lucas could hear was his own voice.

Keep moving forward. Lucas almost jumped at the sound of the voice within his head. After a few moments of hesitation he took a couple of steps forward and before he knew it, he found what he was looking for. Before he could take a breather, his whole body was glowing green like a light bulb. Suddenly the whole area flashed a brilliant light.

And that was the last thing he remembered.

…

Dawn and Damion and his Buizel finally arrived at the backyard, which is a bit of an understatement. There were large potted plants and humongous trees as though it was trying to sprout up its own forest. The grass grew so tall, that it almost covered Buizel. All three of them were right next to the house and noticed glass stuck to the grass from the broken window above it.

"Where is Piplup?" Damion asked as Buizel immediately shot through the grass, looking for the fight it wanted.

"Its Prinplup now," Dawn said groaning. She took out her Pokedex and showed the picture of the Pokemon. "Piplup evolved to save me. It is also a steel type which explained the Metal Claw attack from earlier."

"WOW!" Damion exclaimed, "It looks really strong." Before he could make anymore comments he heard a strange rumbling sound. Dawn and Damion turned around and noticed Staravia, Buizel, and Prinplup, rushing toward them. "Hey, why are they running…?"

The rumbling grew louder and to Dawn and Damion's horror, there was a large orange lawn mower just charging after the three Pokemon. It was chomping down the grass as if it was a giant Pac-man.

"RUNNNNNN!" Dawn yelled. She didn't even need to say it. Soon two trainers, one penguin, one bird, and one weasel were all running around the garden, trying to escape the lawn mower of doom.

"OH NO!" Damion groaned, "HERE WE GO AGAIN!"

**Author's Notes**

lol. I love the lawn mower Rotom.

Anyways, nothing much to say except that updates are still slow. Let's thank my reviewers before I forget.

...

thank you

**SynctrainerLucas**

**SsX-77**

**WolfSummoner93**

**Ketchum Kid** (Thanks for reviewing!)

**phantom shadow mask**

**RWT**

**Sparky**

**gg121** (Rotom's fun has not finish yet. XP thanks for reviewing.)

**Pikana**

**Jarkes**

**Kingston**

**Ben (I'm a boy) **(Thanks for the OC, but please notice in one of the chapter that i need specific stuff. Please check it out. It should be under one of the author's notes. thank you for your review.)

for reviewing.

...

that's it from me. Thank you all. and I wish for a HG/SS game right now to take my mind off of school. lol.

**-JapanDreamer**


	43. Burned or Drowned or Beaten

**Disclaimer: Pokemon is not owned by me.**

hey guys! Yes an UPDATE FINALLY! lol.

I'm sorry for the long stretch but I got two essays, three tests, and large amount of homework. Still working on that essay...

anyways, I'm moving on to the next arc and hopefully will update faster once work slows down.

enjoy.

**Chapter 40:**

Lucas woke up and noticed that the white fog was slowly swirling around him. He felt chilly from the damp air and shivered as he rubbed his arms. He got up, looked around, and noticed in front of him a small brown shrine made out of brown wood. The small roof looked like it was painted green at one time but faded and peeled away. Inside, there was a bright green light that pulsed like a heartbeat.

As Lucas tried to adjust to his surrounding, there came a hazy image of the young girl he had seen from his dream, only this time she didn't look as pale as before. She was sitting dainty like on top of the shrine. If she was given a pair of wings, Lucas would've thought she was a fairy.

"Thank you," the girl whispered bowing her head with respect, "I hope you slept well. I feel a bit of my energy restored." Her long brown hair billowed as a small blast of wind came sweeping up.

"Oh, ummm, no problem," Lucas said, still daze at the situation, "If you need my help again, let me know." The girl smiled at Lucas' generosity, but she shook her head.

"I'm afraid I must go though. I have an important matter to attend to." The girl got down from the shrine and stood face to face with Lucas.

"Wait, what?" Lucas asked, completely shock, "You have your powers back. You don't have to leave." The girl looked deep into Lucas' uneasy eyes as though she understood his feeling.

"There are many things I must hurry and try to fix before it is too late. However, I left some of my energy to you so do not worry. I'll be there to guide you. As the girl said this, her image started to fade away, along with her voice, "I'll see you in the future." With that the girl disappeared, leaving Lucas alone with the shrine that sparkled from the green light until that too disappeared like the flame of a candle, blown out. At that moment, the mist disappeared and the sun broke through the branches, as though there never was a mist in the first place.

"Lucas!" Lucas turned around wildly and noticed Cheryl rushing past a bunch of bushes. Her Chansey followed right behind her. "Thank goodness! I was getting worried-" Cheryl immediately stopped when she noticed the shrine in front of Lucas. "Oh my! Is that the shrine?" Lucas stared at her until he realized that this was the shrine that Cheryl was looking for.

"Oh, yeah, I think it is," Lucas mumbled. Before he could say anything, Cheryl immediately came up to the shrine and kneeled respectfully in front of it. After a moment of silence, Cheryl got up and took out a small bunch of white daisies and placed it in front.

"I never thought I would actually encounter this legendary shrine," Cheryl whispered in amazement. She turned her head to Lucas. "Perhaps you bring good luck to others."

"What is this shrine?" Lucas asked, puzzled. Cheryl walked back to Lucas' side before beginning her story.

"In many forests around the region, there are several shrines where a legendary Pokemon that is said to have the ability to travel through time resides in. Because of its power, the shrines are consider sacred among many. However, it doesn't stay for long and seems to have cloaked a mystic barrier so no one else would try to harm it." Cheryl stared at the shrine as though it could disappear from her any second if she stopped looking at it. Lucas fell into immediate shock silence.

_I'll see you in the future_. Lucas didn't doubt that the girl spoke the truth.

…

"Did we lose it?" Dawn whispered. Damion glanced around the hallway, making sure to peek first. After that attack of the lawn mower, Dawn and Damion and all of their Pokemon managed to run back and hide in the mansion. They could still hear the grinding and crunching sound of the machine as it zoomed in the mansion. Dawn and Damion waited for almost fifteen minutes of silence before Dawn decided for Damion to check out of the room they locked themselves in.

"I think the coast is clear." Damion said as he got out of the hallway to double check. When there wasn't a single vroom sound, Damion determine that it was all right. Dawn and the Pokemon scrambled out while looking wildly around. "I can't believe there is a ghost that can turn into different appliances."

"Well, one thing for sure," Dawn said as she got up. "We definitely need to leave. It is almost noon and we still haven't found Lucas yet."

"I'm sure he is fine," Damion mumbled, "But yeah, let's go." While Damion was returning his Pokemon, he noticed Dawn putting in that strange notebook she was clutching before into her bag. "Dawn, are you stealing that?"  
"No," Dawn said, though she blushed a bit, "There is something strange in this notebook and I think that it is best to analyze it."

"Oh come on," Damion groaned, "We don't need to take the ghost's property." Dawn pouted as though she couldn't decide what to do. "If you're going to keep that, then just hope that the ghost won't come and haunt you." With that Damion rushed down the hall. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Dawn hesitating for a moment before firmly keeping the notebook in her bag.

The two trainers quickly rush down the hallway until they arrived at one of the large doors that would lead to the grand hallway and out the mansion. "Hold on a moment," Dawn stopped as she sniffed the air, "Do you smell something burning?" Damion paused and sniff as well. There was a stench of charcoal smoke in the air.

"Yeah, but if I recall, there isn't any fuel to burn any… anything…" Damion suddenly noticed that the door they were next to was filling the hallway with black smoke. "Uh… run?" Immediately the door crashed open and flames shot out like arms, grabbing for something.

"AHHHHH!" Dawn and Damion yelled as they ran down the hallway. Coming from behind, making clunking noises was a large orange oven came after them.

"This is worse than when it was attacking us with the washing machine!" Damion groaned as he once again run for his life

"Worse?!" Dawn yelled back, "I almost drowned back there!"

"Well, you're going to get burned this time!" Damion retorted back. As if to prove his point, a couple of flames landed on his blond hair and immediately started to cause a fire. "AHHH!" Damion immediately slapped his head to get the flames out.

"Prinplup use Water Spout!" Dawn yelled immediately. The water Pokemon came out and immediately sent out a huge powerful tower of water. The fire quickly diminished in power and left a very wet orange oven. "There that should weaken the fire power. Let's finish this off! Prinplup use Bubblebeam!"

"Buizel," Damion threw out his Pokeball, "Aqua Jet!" The two water attacks zoomed straight at the oven and landed right on target. The powerful water attacks caused the whole area to become very wet with no flames left burning.

"Whoo! We did it!" Damion yelled as he high-fived with his Buizel.

"Hold on a minute!" Dawn snapped, not celebrating the victory as quickly. She pointed to the oven which has now turned into a large white oven instead. "It got away."

"Oh mannnnnn," Damion groaned, "Do you mean that thing is still here?"

"Well, it looked as though it retreated," Dawn said, "I say let's get out of here while we can."

"For once we're thinking the same." The two trainers quickly ran out of the mansion and back to the forest without turning back.

In one of the windows on the second floor, the orange Pokemon stared as the two rushed back into the green forest. It was fun while it last. Maybe one day they'll come back and the party can start all over again.

…

"Oh look," Cheryl said, pointing down the path where the trees started to thin out. "There's the exit." Lucas peered from behind and noticed from a distance a town. "Hopefully you're friends are over there waiting for you."

"LUCAS!" Lucas turned around and noticed to his complete happiness, Dawn and Damion, panting like crazy as though they just finished a marathon.

"Oh, my," Cheryl said surprise, "Looks like I spoke too soon."

"Dawn? Damion?" Lucas said with great surprise and joy. "I was so scared. I miss you guys!" Dawn and Damion rushed to Lucas as though they were going to give him a hug.

**Bam!** Cheryl stared blankly as the two trainers hit Lucas on the head.

"YOU IDIOT!" Damion yelled, "BECAUSE OF YOU I ENDED UP BEING ATTACKED BY A REFRIGERATOR, A FAN, A WASHING MACHINE, A LAWN MOWER, AND AN OVEN!"

"Don't run off like that!" Dawn yelled, "And don't you dare eat honey again without our permission!"

"Owwwwwwww," Lucas whimpered as he rubbed his head, "I'm sorryyyyyyy." Dawn sighed in frustration and noticed a rather shock lady with long green hair.

"Lucas, is she a friend of yours?" Dawn asked. Lucas, dazed and seeing stars after that attack, rocked his head back and forth, looking confused.

"I'm Cheryl," the lady said, still keeping her distance away from Dawn and Damion. "I found Lucas and we were looking for you two."

"Thank you for taking good care of him," Dawn said bowing her head, "He tends to be clumsy and be more of a burden."

"Why is the forest spinning so much?" Lucas groaned as he staggered to and fro until he collapsed to the ground.

"Guess we hit him a little too hard." Damion said, starting to feel a bit guilty. Cheryl immediately searched in her bag until she found a towel and a water bottle filled with water. She carefully dipped the towel with water and placed it on Lucas' head.

"He's just unconscious. He'll wake up soon. Just don't do that again."

"Yeah," Dawn shrugged, "Guess Damion should limit his power."

"What's that suppose to mean?!" Damion snapped, "You slapped him as well!"

"You do it a lot harder than I do and more frequent," Dawn retorted back. Cheryl stared wide eye as the two trainers continue to argue. How in the world did this trio work together?

…

"Commander Mars reporting for duty," Mars said, kneeling before the leader of Team Galactic. He had his back turned and was staring at the dark screen showing three different drawings. Without turning around he said, "You have the energy?"

"Ready for your use Boss," Mars replied without skipping a beat. Though in the shadow, Mars knew that the boss was smiling.

"Thank you for the report. You are dismissed." Mars got up, bowed, and left the room, leaving the leader staring the screen soon. Suddenly the screen switched to a lady with purple hair that was tied like a bun.

"Leader, the mission is going quite smoothly." The man smiled again, which is quite rare to happen twice in one day.

"Excellent Commander Jupiter, continue with the same determination and do not fail."

"Yes, sir," Jupiter saluted before signing out, leaving the boss back to his picture of three creatures.

Everything is falling into place.

**Author's Notes**

I seriously didn't know how to end this so I just use the typically Galactic suspense. lol.

anyways, I apologize but can't thank everyone individually this time. I will in the next chapter hopefully.

Thank you for reading and I hope you review. Now I must go write my essay.

**-JapanDreamer**


	44. The Currency Problem

**Disclaimer: I admit I don't own Pokemon. Now please leave me alone!**

Hey guys, late update again. Sorry.

I'm in the transition now from the forest to Eterna City. It might be choppy but I did try to add humor.

Oh yes a note before you read. **I use money here but I do not know anything about the Pokemon currency**. Therefore I have guess and will not describe the money until I find info on it.

Enjoy the chapter.

**Chapter 41:**

Gardenia walked down the long winded dust filled path to the Eterna forest. The blue sky was dotted with thick clouds that gave giant shadows on the ground. The meadow scenery was filled with wildflowers and grass that seemed to move like the ocean wave with the strong wind blowing.

Gardenia had short orange-brown bob haircut with thick bangs coming from the side that matched her amber color eyes. She had on a hand sewn forest green cloak over her black turtle neck long sleeve shirt that went down to her ribs. She was wearing earth tone baggy pants with extremely large pockets on the side and a black belt with a silver buckle around her waist. She was wearing forest green hiking boots with gray laces. On her shoulder was her little Cherubi, a little pink shape cherry with a large leaf over its head. It sighed relaxingly as the sunlight hit it.

"Today is a good day to go walking," Gardenia sighed as well, enjoying the weather as much as her Pokemon. "We can enjoy this great weather and plus with the sunlight, it won't be dark in the forest." Gardenia stretched her arms to the sky, relaxing her muscle. She was almost at the border of the Eterna forest when she notices four people coming out. Three looked like young trainers, one girl and two boys. All of them looked thoroughly tired and seemed to not have taken a shower for almost a day. They were in some heated discussion that Gardenia could hear as they came closer and closer.

"It was so nice of Cheryl to give us this," the girl said. Her elegant posture suggested to Gardenia that this girl had some eloquent training. The girl was holding up a silver looking bell with a red ribbon tied so that it could be carried as such.

"It's just a bell Dawn," the blond hair grumbled. His face was looking at the girl directly and didn't seem to notice the road ahead of them. He was obviously in a bad mood and seemed to act arrogant by his strut.

"Damion, it's a Sooth Bell," Dawn snapped back, "Using it can help gain a Pokemon's happiness quicker. It's perfect for us." Damion was obviously bored with the lecture and tried to change the subject.

"I'm surprise that she left all of a sudden. A bit rude if you asked me." The boy next to the blond one was apparently dazed off and avoiding the nagging conversation. His eyes seemed to droop every so often.

"Well, she said she was busy," Dawn replied back, "She had to go somewhere. It was kind of her to show us the direction to Eterna city -" The girl stopped her conversation abruptly when she noticed Gardenia.

_Oh, snap, did they know I was listening to them_, Gardenia thought as she weakly waved at them. "He-hello." Damion was a bit surprise at Dawn's abrupt end of conversation and looked up with surprise at Gardenia before raising a suspicious glance. The other boy kept walking until he bumped into Gardenia.

"Oh sorry," the boy muttered in his drone tired voice before walking around Gardenia and continuing along the path. Gardenia and her Cherubi gaped at the boy's lack of attention to the reality since he obviously didn't realize his companions had stopped.

"Lucas stop!" the girl yelled. Lucas immediately jerked back awake and noticed that he was way ahead of his two friends. He hurried back, looking slightly embarrassed. "You need to pay attention to your surroundings more."

_You got that right_, Gardenia thought as she watched Lucas bowed his head repeatedly as his apology.

"Hello and good afternoon," Dawn said, directing her attention to Gardenia, "Is this the path to Eterna City?"

"Oh!" Gardenia was taken aback by the polite tone, "Yes, just follow the path and you'll be at the town in about ten minutes." Gardenia pointed to down the path she was walking and in the back they could just see the outline of the city.

"Thank you very much," Dawn said, nodding her head politely before she and the two other trainers followed her. Gardenia stared at the three as they continue their conversation.

"Hopefully," Dawn said, "We'll be able to find somewhere to take a break. That night in the forest is awful." Gardenia froze. Wait, these three trainers actually slept in the forest?!

"I hope there is something to eat," Lucas groaned, "I'm starved. Can we go and eat lunch first?"

"Great," Damion said, stretching his arms in the air, "I can't wait and sleep somewhere that isn't a haunted house."

"Excuse me!" Dawn, Damion, and Lucas turned around and saw that the young lady staring at them face to face. "Did you say you went to the Old Chateu?!!!!" The three trainers immediately stepped back from the shocked face of the lady. All three of them looked uneasily at each other.

"If you're talking about that haunted house then yeah," Damion shrugged his shoulders, "It was crazy. A whole bunch of household appliances were like possessed or something." Gardenia gaped in even more horrifying shock. They went to the house, encountered ghosts, and still managed to be alive?! Just how strong were these trainers?!

"Ummmm, are you okay?" Gardenia noticed that Lucas was staring at her with concern.

"I see," Gardenia said, trying to maintain relax and unscarred posture though her legs were shaking, "You are tough trainers. I will accept your challenge, but first I must… go and trainnnnnn!" With that the lady ran down the path and back to the city as though she was running from a ghost. Dawn, Damion, and Lucas stared at each other as though they couldn't believe what they just saw.

"What's her problem?" Damion said staring at the trail dust left behind.

…

Cynthia walked down the gravel path with a brisk pace as though she knew where to go. She had put on her hood so that no one would take a second glance at her. She ignored the bustling crowd and had a rather determine look on her face. She stopped when was in front of a rather large building that seemed more like a lighthouse with a space dome on top. Cynthia wasn't paying attention to that but to the helicopter hovering from above.

"I've found you."

….

Jupiter stared out of the window of the four story building. Outside it was like any other typical day. Cars and people were moving about normally. It was a successful day today. Of course, under the eyes of many, they were simply a technology warehouse. They supply many goods for the city and of course, get something special in return. Her purple hair was tied like an oval on the top of her head and a bun in the back. Her brown eyes were slanted like a mischievous cat. Her deep thin cherry lips stretched to a classic evil villain smile. She was wearing a light violet suit jacket with a knee long skirt to go with it. She was wearing a white button up shirt underneath and a black tie with one inch high heels. Of course, this outfit is simply a cover-up for what is really happening here.

"Our plan is working perfectly," Jupiter grinned as she looked at her typical plain executive office – a dark brown office table with a giant thick and black swiveling chair with bookshelves on the left and right sides of the wall filled with law books. On top of her table was a stack of legal documents, a voice communicator seen typically in work and a name plate that read – Executive Jove. "Shame I have to do desk work for such things," Jupiter grumbled as she tried to loosen the chocking tie. Suddenly the speaker beeped on her desk and Jupiter pressed the button before speaking. "Jove speaking."

"Commander Jupi- I mean Jove," the nervous woman's voice said through the speaker, "Commander Ven- I mean Aphrodite… well, ummm…"

"Just spit it out!" Jupiter demanded, annoyed with this. How she hated the fact that people here have a hard time to remember to use the code name.

"Err," the woman said, flustered and terrified now, "The helicopter is already here. She is coming down." Jupiter stared at the clock and grimaced. Venus always showed up at random times.

"Good, I'll meet her there shortly." With that Jupiter hung up and walked out of the door. Immediately the sound of computers and tapping on the keyboard seemed to be amplified twenty times louder. The long rows of scientists with their lab coats stared mesmerized by the computer through their thick glasses. There were many Galactic grunts here as well, standing guard, wearing the usual space uniform. Of course, it was okay for them to wear the uniform for this place here is top secret. No normal citizen can enter here. Immediately all the grunts stood erect and salute to Jupiter as she cross the busy room. Jupiter ignored them as she continued to walk till she entered the place where the elevators were. However, before she could press the button, the elevator doors immediately opened to reveal a young girl with voluminous orange hair that was tied into two pigtails with yellow ribbons. She had on a blue blazer with a white collared up shirt with a red bow tie and a dark blue plaid skirt. She had long white socks that went to her knees and black dress shoes. She looked as though she just came out of a prep school.

"Hey there Jupiter," the girl grinned, "I brought what you wanted." She revealed a enormous black sports bag from behind her back. Jupiter glared at the girl's carefree attitude.

"Venus, you're supposed to call before you come here not after," Jupiter snapped. Venus pouted at Jupiter's barking order.

"Sorry, just wanted to surprise you." Venus pointed to Jupiter's door, "Shall we continue our talk in there?" Jupiter didn't have a chance to respond before Venus skipped her way across the room. Jupiter had to run a bit unprofessionally to catch up with Venus.

"Well," Jupiter said, after letting Venus in, closing the door, and sitting behind her desk as though they were in a one on one meeting, "Is it all in here?" Venus dumped the bag on the table ungracefully before sitting unladylike in the chair opposite of Jupiter's.

"All the money is in there. 1,000,000 Pokedollars. Seriously, why do I have to send the money over? Isn't there something called electronic?"

"We can't have people trying to trace the money back. We'll get caught easily," Jupiter snapped, though she was please with her payment, "Sending this way is less suspicious."

"Rightttt. The "daughter" of this executive storage junk place comes to visit her mom after school." Venus used her hands from quotation marks. Jupiter ignored Venus and zipped open the sports bag. She looked really excited until she saw what was in there.

"Venus, was it you who went to the bank before you came here?"

"Yeah." Venus said.

"Then why in the world DID YOU GIVE ME ONE MILLION ONE POKEDOLLAR BILLS!" Jupiter demanded as she shook the money in her hand. It was true – one million Pokedollars all in one Pokedollar bills.

"Isn't it obvious?" Venus retorted back as though Jupiter was crazy. "We can dump it on your bed and roll around in it silly!" "You can't do it with a million Pokedollar bill."

"Are you trying to make me LOSE MY TEMPER?!" Jupiter roared.

"Well you're doing a good job of it already!" Venus yelled back. If they weren't so heated in their discussion they would've noticed someone spying them from Jupiter's window.

**Author's Notes**

I wish I had a miillion one dollar bills so I could just pile on my bed and roll around saying "I'm rich, I'm rich!" XP

Anyways, just a couple of random news.

I put a poll up if you want to vote. Just go to my profile.

Also Pokemon Special manga might be discontinued... FOREVER! NOOOOOO! lol.

Okay, let's thank my reviewers.

...

thank you

**SynctrainerLucas**

**Jarkes**

**Ketchum Kid**

**phantom shadow mask**

**RWT**

**Sparky**

**Pikana**

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for reviewing

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that's it from me. please review.

see you next time.

**-JapanDreamer**


	45. More than One Intruder

**Disclaimer: I don't own Pokemon.  
**

Hey guys! I'm so sorry for the late update! I had finals to study so I promised myself that I wouldn't go on the internet unless it is school related.

Anyways, I made this chapter long a bit to make up for lose time.

enjoy!

**Chapter 42:**

Eterna city was a fairly large city compare to Floaraoma. The road was made out of smooth granite rock and the small houses were lined up in neat rows. It was a typical type of urban town.

"Eterna City – The town that even now is tied to the past," Dawn read in the Pokemon guidebook she picked up earlier, "It has a long amount of Sinnoh history and even a monument for the legendary Pokemon. We should go check it." Dawn looked up and to her dismay; none of the guys were listening.

"That woman was weird, running off like that," Damion said, yet again as the three trainers arrived at Eterna City. "Though she looks familiar… where have I seen her…"  
"Well pondering over it is not going to help is it?" Dawn said as she looked around the city. Despite the large place, there seemed to be a strange ominous feel. In fact quite a few people were whispering and staring at them though Dawn seemed to be the only one who noticed this. Damion was still thinking about the event earlier and Lucas was, as usual, in his own little world. "Do you guys get the feeling that these people are staring at us?" Damion paused and looked around. He noticed that two teenage girls were staring at them rudely.

"What are you staring at?" Damion snapped. The two girls blushed embarrassingly before hurrying away. "Geez, what's wrong with this place?"

"That was rude Damion," Dawn snapped. Damion looked at Dawn and contered back. "Well, them staring at us is rude too. Ah, whatever," Damion sighed as he rubbed his head, "I'm tired of this. I'm going to go the gym right now." With that, Damion rushed off.

"Hey Damion, wait up!" Dawn yelled, "you don't even know the way!" Lucas snapped out of his daze from Dawn's yelling. "Wait up!" Lucas called out, as he jogged to catch up to both of the trainers.

…

Tory stared into the side of the window where Jupiter and Venus were arguing. He was floating on his Metang. He watched the two bicker over that huge pile of cash in the bag. He pondered for a moment. After following that helicopter from Floaroma Town, he was surprise to find himself here. This decision was dangerous, since he not only is floating up at the fourth story floor but also the fact that he is exposed to anyone who would happen to look out. Nevertheless, they have information, and he needed it.

This must be a secret base, Tory thought as he pressed his ears against the window, hoping to hear something. Although muffled, Tory managed to catch a couple of snipes of the conversation.

"This is ridiculous," the purple hair woman snapped, "I can't believe they made you a commander."

"Well, it's the boss' decision," Venus replied back, "If you got a problem with it, go talk to him."

"Do not speak in that tone to your superior," Jupiter hissed. She got out from her chair and started to head to the window. Tory immediately flinched back, motioning for his Metang to move away. Tory's heart beat faster and faster until Jupiter came up to the window. She paused there for a moment as though she was looking around for anything suspicious, but she just simply closed the curtains. Tory gulped and sighed in relief as he motioned his Metang to return to the usual spot.

"…. Prisoner?" Tory froze at Venus' words, "Since when?"

"Since we learned that information may have been leaked out. The prisoner was foolish to try and protest against us, but we managed to… remain here." Tory could feel his pulse racing. Prisoner… could it be…?

"President Jove!" The door slammed open, causing such a commotion that Tory almost fell out of his seat. He tried to regain his balance and when he listened again, he managed to hear parts of the conversation.

"Intruder?" Jupiter said suspiciously. Tory froze. Did someone see him?

"Yes," the man, Tory was assuming it was a man since he couldn't see what was going on, said, "We don't know who he is since he has a large clock. However, we know what he wants. He is demanding the release of the prisoner and if not… well the person is on the third floor and is attacking everywhere." Tory frowned a moment. That definitely wasn't him… yet who else would be here…

"Sweet, an intruder," Venus giggled, "I could use another battle."

"Venus," Jupiter said, "You need to leave."

"What?" Venus pouted, "Why?"

"This is my station and I'm going to take care of it," Jupiter snapped, "You need to get back to base and start working like a commander. And you," Jupiter directed her attention to the other person, "I need you to start packing up. I'll deal the intruder myself. Make sure we leave everything spotless by the time I'm done." With that the door slammed shut. Tory was assuming that Jupiter left the room at this moment.

"Sheesh, she never lets me have the fun," Venus grumbled before she opened the door and slammed it shut too. Tory pondered a moment before deciding to take the risk. He slowly opened the window. Thank goodness it wasn't locked shut and stepped into the office. There was no one there. He jumped into the room. "Good job Metang," Tory said before returning the Pokemon. Beyond the door, there seemed to be a huge rush of some sort. Tory went to the door and locked it shut. Facing the room his eyes were immediately directed at the office table. He took a deep breath and immediately started to open the drawers and take out paper. Time to get to work.

…

"Wow, so this is the gym," Damion whistled in amazement. "Kinda… flowery if you ask me." The dome like gym was almost made of completely of glass. The sunlight shone quite brightly on the windows giving the gym a sort of glowing effect. At the very front of the dome entrance was a large Pokeball shape symbol. The flowery stuff Damion was referring to was the large green vines and moss that seemed to be attached like a hand to the gym.

"How are a couple of vines decorated around considered being flowery?" Dawn asked, confused. Damion shrugged his shoulder as he cross the threshold. The hallway was strangely dark compared to the windows outside. The stone tile floor gave a cooling effect from the hot day.

"Wow," Lucas said, "It's so dark here…. Are you sure we're at the right place?" The darkness was making him drowsy so his words were starting to slur a bit.

"Stay awake Lucas," Dawn responded, "I'm pretty sure the door wouldn't be open if there wasn't anyone here."

"HELLO! Anybody? I'm here for a gym battle," Damion yelled at the empty hallway. Suddenly a large flash of light spotlighted the three trainers. "AH! My eyes, my eyes!" Damion, Dawn, and Lucas shielded their eyes.

"Welcome Damion, Dawn, and Lucas," a voice boomed through the hallway, "Like I promised, I have returned here to accept your challenge!"

"Wait, who are you?" Damion asked trying to see through the incredibly bright lights.

"How do you know our names?" Dawn asked still shield her eyes.

"What?!" the voice cried, "How could you forget me already? Trainers these days…"

"Could you dim the lights a bit," Lucas requested, "We're having a bit of a problem seeing like this." There was a huge embarrassing silent for a couple of minutes.

"Oh," the voice said, "Sorry, I got a bit carried away." The spot lights were turned off and the room lights were turned on instead. Dawn noticed how there was another layer of glass in this room and when the lights were turned on, it gave a bit of reflecting image.

"Like I said," the voice said, coughing in embarrassment, "I am the Eterna Gym Leader and I accept your challenge." Damion looked up and immediately recognized the lady from earlier. She was standing in front of the glass door leading to the next room. She looked confident unlike before. "My name, again, is Gardenia."

"Whattttttttt?" Damion said, "Are you kidding me?"

…

The intruder glared around her carefully. She wasn't concern of the fact that people would recognize her. After all she was in disguise – a large black cloak that had a hood so that no one can see her face. A whole bunch of those same kinds of space people at Floaroma Town were surrounding her. Their Pokemon were numerous of course, but most seemed to be weak and inexperienced. Of course they too were not moving. After all, attacking while in a lab can be dangerous. The intruder patted her Garchomp who was walking in slow motion around her like a shield. Every once in a while he snapped at the suspicious people.

_This is not going anywhere_, the intruder thought. She wished she could simply destroy the place. She could see several Pokemon locked up in cages and cylinder glass imprisonment. They were obviously using them for lethal experiments judging by the looks of things. But if she started attacking like this, who knows what other harm will occur here. She didn't want to resort to this but…

"Spirtomb go!" the intruder yelled. The Glactic grunts immediately flinched at the sight of this new Pokemon. The purple gas-like Pokemon with green monster eyes glared at its opponent. The intruder pulled the cover of her cloak farther down so that the opponents wouldn't be able to see her face. This attack will cause quite a bit of disturbance.

"Team Glactic attack!" One of the grunts cried out. Immediately Zubat were using Wing Attack, Glameow use Scratch, Kadabra use Confusion. Yet with all these attacks coming at Cynthia, she didn't even flinch.

"Spiritomb use Psychic." Immediately all the attacks came to a complete halt as though time just stopped. They floated in the air, surrounded by purple lights.

"No… no way," All of the grunts started to feel uneasy and terrified at the attack. Cynthia stared at the crowd.

"I feel too grateful for the gifts you gave me so I'm returning them all." With one fluid hand motion from the intruder, Spirtomb send all of the attacks back at the owners.

"RUN!" But it was too late, all of the attacks came crashing back, knocking everyone and their Pokemon unconscious.

"Phew, easy though I didn't really wanted to do that," Cynthia sighed in relief as she took off the hood of her cloak. She stared sadly at the experiments around her. "I'll save you guys so hold on." She put the hood back on and was about to rush to the fourth floor when she noticed something that caught her eye. She stopped and came closer to the object she spotted. "This is…"

…

Jupiter growled in frustration as she walked down the hall. She managed to change back into her usual commander clothes, finally. _The intruder is almost at the fourth floor,_ Jupiter thought, _that is how far he is going to go after I'm done with him_.

"Commander," one of the grunts came up, "What do we do about the prisoner?" Jupiter paused for a moment. The trespasser wanted to rescue the prisoner…

"Leave him here. Just in case things go bad," Jupiter said, "The trespasser only wants the prisoner. He won't follow us if we escape." Jupiter thought hard for a moment. The person is probably a high rank level trainer. Data must be recorded when battling. "Go back to my office and get my things. After that leave."

"Yes, Commander Jupiter." The grunt bowed and raced back into the office and reached the door knob…

…

Tory flinched at the sound of the door knob rattling.

"Hey! Why is this door locked?!" Tory froze a moment in fear before realizing that he needed to go. He grabbed all the paper that he thought he needed and just when he was about to escape from the window… the door slammed open.

**Author's Notes**

In case you forgotten, Tory was in the Floaroma Contest. I figured he should come back since I left it hanging in that contest chapter. I can't wait to write Cynthia and Jupiter epic battle. XP

Okay, let me give you the deal.** I will not discontinue a story unless I actually state it**. So keep checking my profile cause that is where I let people know why I can't update as fast at the moment.

Let's thank my reviewers before I forget now.

...

thank you

**Pikana**

**RWT  
**

**dark5523**

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**co426e**

**SynctrainerLucas**

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**phookazooi**

**gg121**

**shadowdragon**

**Hoishi**

for reviewing

...

I'm going to try and finish this story faster.

Anyways, see you in the next chapter.

**-JapanDreamer**


	46. Cynthia Vs Jupiter

**Disclaimer: Will not own Pokemon**

Well, I wish you guys happy holidays now just in case if I don't update during that time.

Anyways, I've decided to put in a dark twist to this story. Since it'll make it more interesting in terms of team Galactic. (MUHAHAHA!)

**Chapter 43:**

"How rude!" Gardenia scoffed at Damion's statement, "You didn't know that I was the gym leader of this town?! Gardenia – the Grass type Gym Leader" She said this in the rhetorical sense, but Damion, Dawn, and Lucas all said, "Yes," as if to respond to the question. Gardenia

"You don't know me?!" Gardenia slumped in depression. Guess being a Gym Leader isn't a guarantee in being a famous celebrity. "Well," Gardenia said mustering what was left of her dignity, "I, Gardenia, will accept you trainers' challenge. And I will show you that I can defeat every single one of you! Very few trainers manage to defeat me!" There was a huge silence and Gardenia felt confident that the trainers were awed by her power until…

"Umm," Damion raised his hand, feeling that it was necessary, "I'm the only one who wants a gym battle." Gardenia felt her whole body freeze in shock.

"I'm here to watch," Dawn raised her hand.

"Me too,"Lucas said as well. There was now a embarrassing silence before Gardenia said, "Hahaha, I knew that!"

"No you didn't," Lucas said, pointing out the obvious.

"Anyway," Gardenia said, coughing, trying to cover up Lucas' statement, "Come in challenger and let's have our battle! No one from the outside or any type of noise will be able to disrupt our battle." With that the large glass doors opened, revealing the large grass field. There were trees everywhere at the border of the gym. The whole place is closed off from the sunlight except the top of the dome roof. Sunlight was streaming through there, shining on the Pokemon gym floor where the gym leader and challenger will battle. "Come in and let's begin."

"All right!" Damion grinned and flex his arm, "I can't wait to win my second badge!" With that he ran inside before Gardenia could retort his statement.

"Well," Dawn sighed as Gardenia, yelling him to not to cut in front, ran after Damion, "We'll finally be able to see Damion's battle."

"Should be interesting," Lucas sighed as he started to doze off. Dawn immediately snapped her fingers in front of him.

"Focus," Dawn said before she walked in. Lucas ran after her and the large doors immediately closed. It was during this time that something bad had happen outside and none of them heard a single noise.

…

"YOU!" The Galactic Grunt exclaimed at the intruder who was just about to jump out the window. "JUPITER! INTR-"

Tory didn't give the grunt a chance to finish his sentence. With his free hand, the one without an immense of paperwork, Tory threw out his Pokeball. "Pigeotto, Wing Attack!" The bird Pokemon slammed against the grunt that immediately flew back twenty feet before fainting and crashing down on one of the spindle chairs. Tory didn't even stop to see if anyone else was with the man. He jumped out of the window and back onto his Metang. "Quickly," Tory commanded. The Metang immediately levitated to the ground, and Tory jumped off when Metang was about three feet above the ground.

Then he ran. Tory jumped over the bushes and onto the road. He had to get out of town. He was lucky that there was an intruder that was causing enough mayhem so that he wouldn't be followed. Just as he was forty feet away from the building, something happened.

BOOM!!!!!! The explosion was so powerful that Tory and many other people around toppled to the ground. Tory clutched tightly to the papers despite his aching arms. He looked up and saw to his horror that the building's third floor was already in destruction. Flames and broken glass were everywhere.

"Someone call the fire department!" A hysterical lady screamed. Tory could hear the screams, the sirens, the crying, the shouts… it was just too much. Tory gave another glance at the burning building before he turned away and ran.

…

Cynthia was furious. Actually, furious isn't a strong enough word to express the bubbling volcano inside. Her anger was boiling more than usual. She stomped up the stairs with little regard of blowing her cover. That… that… what have they been doing here this whole time?! Cynthia shuddered as she remembered the glowing cylinder glass tank… breathing… sleeping as though nothing is wrong…

She finally arrived at the top of the stairs. She spun wildly around and saw that there was no one there… except for a strange lady with purple hair sitting on one of the desks. The lady was resting her chin on her hand and her eyes were sparkling with amusement at Cynthia's cloaked form before clapping. She was wearing the same type of white and gray spacesuit like the other grunts only her uniform was more elaborate. The lady was wearing white high heel boots that dug into the wood of the side of the desk. Cynthia knew that this was the leader behind all this. "Well, done," the lady said, getting off of the desk after she stopped clapping, "First introduction I suppose, I'm Commander Jupiter. I would offer a more sincere welcome but as you can see, your mayhem caused my staff to leave on such short notice."

"Why…" Cynthia growled. The lady stopped and cocked her head as though confused though her dark brown, almost blood-colored, eyes said differently. "I'm sorry," Jupiter said sweetly, "I have no idea what you're talking about."

BAM! CRASH! Jupiter flinched and dodged the large slash attack that Cynthia's Garchomp sent out. The powerful attack ripped the carpet the floor underneath. "You monster! You stole these civilians' Pokemon, kidnap one of them, and perform these experiments. You'll regret this," Cynthia glared at Jupiter. Jupiter was taken aback for a moment by the sudden attack before composing herself immediately.

"My, my, my," Jupiter said, "Attacking without introducing yourself and hiding under that cloak as though you're afraid to see me." She took out her Pokeball and revealed a large Skuntank. The purple and white skunk growled menacingly, unafraid of Garchomp despite the size difference. The skunk Pokemon looked almost exactly alike like its trainer – malicious and dangerous. "You obviously have no manners despite the position you're in."

Cynthia didn't respond and gave an attack signal with her hand to Garchomp who immediately charged at Jupiter and her Pokemon. "Skuntank, use Poison Gas!" The Pokemon avoided Garchomp's Slash and sent out a large purple smokescreen. Cynthia immediately drew back. Garchomp was coughing at the smoke. Cynthia frowned. She knew that taking one small breath and it's all over. Luckily Garchomp is ineffective too much by poison as much as she will, but still the smoke would make it harder to see. She took out another Pokeball to reveal the Spirtomb again.

"Spirtomb use Psychic!" The Pokemon emitted a large energy wave and soon the poisonous gas was immediately contained in a psychic boundary, looking like a purple gaseous snow globe. "Garchomp use Dragon Rage!" Garchomp charged at Skunktank who managed to avoid most of the damage. The desks came flying everywhere and computers slammed against the wall and bits of computer hard drives flew out.

"You know, that was a pretty expensive computer you just broke," Jupiter child Cynthia as Cynthia charged at her. "In fact you pretty much destroyed this whole floor."

"I'm pretty sure your boss will be able to compensate for the damage," Cynthia retorted back. She kicked one of the chairs straight at Jupiter who had to jump on the desk to avoid the collision. But by doing so, Cynthia managed kicked Jupiter at the ribs. Jupiter flew even farther back, this time with a painful feeling at the side of her chest. "That is for your selfish behavior." Jupiter, her lip was bleeding from being cut from the desk, snarled back and tried to punch Cynthia but she simply dodged and continued to do so.

Both the trainer and their Pokemon were in their own little battle, destroying the place until it was almost unrecognizable. "We're not getting anywhere at this rate," Jupiter growled. She felt the recorder in her pocket. There should be enough data, plus, she doesn't think she can take anymore of this before people outside start to get suspicious. Jupiter grabbed one of the computers and threw with all her might at Cynthia who barely dodged it. However, Cynthia accidentally tripped on a broken table leg and fell to the ground. Wincing she tried to get up but the pain was too much.

Garchomp immediately noticed that her trainer was in danger and ran to Cynthia's aid. "Oh, no you don't," Jupiter exclaimed, "Skuntank, use Night Slash!" Skuntank attacked from Garchomp from behind who immediately howled in pain. Despite the high defense, that attack was strong.

Cynthia gritted her teeth as she got up. This wasn't going as planned. Pshuuu! Cynthia's heart froze as the laser just barely grazed her face. Her cheek was bleeding by a thin horizontal cut. She looked up and saw Jupiter with a small handheld laser gun. "Didn't want to use this, but looks like I'll have to eliminate you now."

"Spiritomb!" Cynthia yelled. Immediately the Pokemon released the gaseous poison gas back into the air again. Immediately the smog filled the room. Jupiter couldn't see a thing and suddenly Cynthia rushed up and kicked the laser gun out of Jupiter's hand. Jupiter tried to hit Cynthia but the Champion drew back into the purple fog. "Useless," Jupiter snapped, "That poison won't work on me! I've trainer many years for my body to be immune to that. But how about you?! Even if I can't see you, that poison will." There was a minute of silence and Cynthia hasn't attacked yet. It was then that Jupiter realized that Cynthia wasn't trying to do a sneak attack, she was trying to escape. Jupiter turned and realized that the Garchomp and Spirtomb disappeared.

"Skuntank! After them!" Jupiter knew where they were going and immediately ran after Cynthia. Jupiter ran through the mass junk and finally found the steel door where the locked prisoner was. Next to the door was Cynthia, trying so very hard not to breathe as Garchomp started to tear the door apart. "You're not going anywhere! Skuntank! Flamethrower!" The poison Pokemon emitted from its mouth an immense powerful stream of flames straight at Cynthia who was cornered and couldn't do anything about it. Cynthia couldn't give any orders for fear of breathing in the gas, but as though reading Cynthia's mind, Spiritomb stopped the attack from coming at her. It immediately returned the attack but the two opponents were too fast.

"That attack won't work on me again! Skuntank use Flamethrower again!" Skuntank sent out a thick stream of fire at Cynthia and Spiritomb didn't have the reaction to stop that attack as well. Cynthia watched as the flames came closer. Suddenly out of the mist of the poison, a blue sphere came out of nowhere and slammed against the attack. Immediately the impact caused a large blast.

BOOM! Cynthia had to wince and covered her ears as the powerful vibration shook the whole floor. The windows crashed at the immense pressure of sound wave. The poisonous smoke cleared away thanks to the immense wave, leaving dust behind. Cynthia coughed and rubbed her eyes as she looked up. Standing in front of her was a young boy, around fourteen years old. He had strange blue spiky hair that matched with his large blue and black gloves. He had on a yellow sleeveless shirt and black cargo pants. There was a large black scarf tied around his waist. He was barefooted and there were burn marks on his feet but he acted as though he didn't notice it. The boy's red eyes stared angrily at the ones who were trying to injure Cynthia.

Jupiter gasped at what she was seeing. "That's not possible! It was a failure! A mistake! A creation that was to be destroyed!" Cynthia gasped at the situation and noticed that the boy turned around and that was when Cynthia noticed for the blue fox ears sticking out of the boy's head. No… how is that possible? The boy gave a nod to Cynthia before turning to face his opponent.

Cynthia racked her brain from what is going on… that boy… he… no… he was the boy she just saved…

…

_Forty minutes ago…_

Cynthia stared in horror as she saw the boy curled up and floated in the cylinder tank. He had on a mouth piece for air but was obviously in pain as he continued to sleep. "Garchomp use Slash!" Immediately the tank was broke open. The water came gushing out and the boy fell out. Cynthia caught him and carefully placed him on the ground. She didn't really take a good look at the boy. All she knew was that there were many puncture wounds on the arms and legs as though he was being put on drugs. The boy, awake now from the noise, was coughing in pain. Cynthia slowly put him to the ground. The boy immediately curled up and covered his head with his hand as though he was fighting off the fear he was having in his mind.

Cynthia placed her hand on his chin. "You. Stay here. I promise to come back for you." With that she got up and stared at the stairs. Her blood was boiling with anger. She ran off, not noticing the boy watching her go as he touched the place where her hand placed on his cheek.

…

Cynthia gasped in realization. This organization… this is a scientific breakthrough… what in the world were these people doing here?! She got up and noticed that the steel door had broken thanks to Garchomp's attack and the explosion. Garchomp came out and brought out the prisoner she was supposed to save in this mission. Cynthia coughed as the flames started to suck out the oxygen out of the atmosphere.

"Let's get out of here," Cynthia said in a hoarse voice.

"YOU'RE NOT GOING ANYWHERE!" Jupiter screamed over the flames, "And you –" she directed to the young boy, "are coming with me. You are an experiment that cannot escape." The kid didn't respond. His eyes were dead and lifeless but he continued to hold his ground. Immediately he charged forward and slammed his fist toward Skuntank. The Pokemon managed to dodge the attack but the wood from the floor flew up and hit it squarely in the head.

"Force Palm…" Galactic muttered. Her heart was pounding with excitement now that she recovered from the shock. "It's weak… though it is the attack… But that first attack… Skuntank use Hyper Beam!" Skuntank sent out a large bright blast of energy and released the strong attack straight at the kid.

"NO!" Cynthia yelled, "Garchomp use-" But the kid put his arm out to stop Cynthia from ordering the attack. Closing his eyes he held his gloved hands in a circular form and immediately there was a small but a closely dense pack of blue energy.

"That attack…" Cynthia gasped. Immediately the kid released the energy straight at the Hyper Beam and the explosion was so strong that it knocked Cynthia, Garchomp, Spiritomb, the rescued prisoner and the kid straight out the building. "Togekiss!" Cynthia sent out the flying Pokemon and immediately landed on it. She returned her two Pokemon and caught the kid. She saw that he has fainted, probably from the lack of energy, and his whole body was covered with bruises. Cynthia frowned. She needed someone to help her, but with this kid's appearance, what can she do?

"Owwww, what's going on?" Cynthia turned around and noticed that the man she rescued was finally awake. He rubbed his head and continued to groan. "Cynthia!" The man gaped in amazement. "What are you doing here? And how did- AHHHH!" The man realized that he was floating above the ground about sixty feet. "I hate heights! Why in the world am I flying?! Put me down! Put me down!" Cynthia paused. She had no choice but to trust this freaked out man to help her.

"Please Rad, you have to help me." Cynthia showed to boy to the now even more baffled man.

"What?!" Rad gaped, "Who is he and what is with those ears?!"

"Rad!" Cynthia hissed, "Please! I'll answer questions later!" Rad was speechless at the situation. The last thing he remembered was waiting for the Galactic Eterna Building, demanding for his Pokemon when he found himself waking up in a cell with a steel door. Rad took another look at the weak and helpless kid before swallowing and nodding.

"Very well, my shop is that way," Rad said, pointing to one of the building up ahead, "And please let us land safely." Cynthia nodded and Togekiss flew carefully to the shop. She took another look at the kid and couldn't help but sighed. Things have become a lot more complicated.

…

Jupiter coughed as she got out of the rubble. At least the roof didn't on her. She stared at the destroyed building. Everything… destroyed. Her uniform was ripped and torn in many places and her hair was flowing out of the bun. Her long hair reached to her shoulders and for some reason, made her look younger if it wasn't for her manic eyes.

At least the police wouldn't be able to find any evidence… at least not that quickly. Jupiter raised her head and noticed the helicopter finally arriving. She reached into her pocket and checked her data recorder. Perfect. The entire battle was recorded. That boy… Jupiter grinned as she watched him perform his act again. The research was not for nothing. It is not completely perfect but it worked. The boss will be pleased with this. With the research they will finally be able to control and change history. She laughed a maniac laugh that could be heard for miles if it wasn't for the helicopter as it came down."HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

The world will soon be theirs now.

**Author's Notes**

Well, that went well. lol.

Yup, that's right. Pokemorphs (is that what you call them?) are here! The idea was given by Furryfur and I thought it wasn't a bad idea to have something like this. Anyways, there is something fishy about these Pokemorphs. What is Galactic trying to do with them? well... I'm not quite sure yet either. lol.

Hmmm, maybe I should do a Pokemorph story. XP. kidding. If I am, I'll wait until I finish writing the two stories I have now.

Anyways, let's thank my reviewers.

...

**SynctrainerLucas**

**Ketchum Kid** (yeah, recurring characters are awesome. I'm trying to do that for more OCs but I get confused easily with which ones I've done and haven't done. thanks for reviewing.)

**Furryfur**

**Phantom shadow mask**

**Sparky**

**dark5523**

**PeachyKeenx088**

**Pikana**

**RWT**

**Jarkes**

**Hoshi** (good to know that you'll still keep checking. and I apologize for spelling your name wrong. Do not say that it is okay, because spelling people's names wrong is bad. XP lol. thanks for the review.)

**Emperor Empoleon** (Hey, haven't heard from you for a while (it is you right?). Glad to know that I'm improving a bit. thanks for the review.)

...

well that's it from me.

thanks for reading and see you in the next chapter.

**-JapanDreamer**


	47. Pokemorphs Questions

**Disclaimer: No Pokemon in this making were hurt or owned by this author.**

Well, another update. I must say, I really know how to speed things up. lol.

I noticed how some of you guys mentioned that I actually wrote how Pokemorphs came to existent while other stories don't. Well, to tell you the truth I'm quite surprise of two things. 1) I never read any Pokemorphs stories so I didn't know this was a problem. 2) I never thought I would write about them and a lot of people would like it. Hmmm, maybe I should make it into a larger theme of this story. lol.

Anyways, this chapter is a bit long and quite a bit of mystery to it. We get to see more of Lucas' past so enjoy!

**Chapter 44:**

"Focus Lucas!" Lucas snapped awake again and saw that Dawn was staring angrily face to face at him. "At this rate, you'll never see Damion's battle!" Lucas looked up and saw that Damion was listening to Gardenia as she explained the three on three battle rules. Dawn and Lucas were sitting on one of the wooden benches that surrounded the whole gym.

"Sorry, sorry," Lucas muttered, rubbing his tired eyes. He stretched his hands into the air and yawned quite loudly. "I'm just so tired…"

"Well, how are you going to decide if you can't even stay awake?" Dawn sighed.

"Sorry?" Lucas said confused, "What do you mean I decide?"  
"Well, you don't know what you want to do yet," Dawn said, looking a bit tired from explaining, "I mean, Damion is doing Pokemon battles and I'm doing contests." She paused for a moment for Lucas to catch up with what she was saying before continuing. "But what do you want to do with your life? You don't have any background you want to share with us and you seem distant about your future."

Lucas stared at the ground that Dawn thought for a moment she said something rude until… "There is no point in worrying about my future… until I know that there is one."

"What?" Dawn said confused, "Of course you have a future. Everybody does. It just takes some time to find it." Lucas didn't look up and for some reason look miserable as he listened to Dawn's optimistic opinion.

"HEY!" Dawn looked up and saw Damion looking at their direction. "Quite talking and start watching. This is my first gym battle for you to see."

"All right, I'm sorry," Dawn groaned and she turned her head away from Lucas who just kept looking down at his feet.

"All right," Damion grinned as he cracked his knuckles, "let's get it started! Go Staravia!" The bird Pokemon swooped out of its Pokeball and into the air.

"Go Cherubi!" Gardenia called out, "Remember three on three. Whoever's Pokemon are still standing wins!"

"Ha," Damion grinned, "You better be more concern about your disadvantage. Staravia use Wing Attack!"

Lucas could hear Damion's eager voice as he continued to battle. Damion had a dream, Dawn had a dream, but he, Lucas, what dream is there for him? He felt his whole body loosening from tiredness and falling back into deep slumber again but this time staying there.

Again the dreams came back.

…

"How old are you Lucas?" Justin asked the kid as the eight year old followed behind him obediently. Justin and Lucas were walking down the stony dungeon like underground route. It has been about two days since Lucas was recovering here and Justin was assigned to take care of him till today.

The hallway was dark but at least there were torches everywhere hanging on the side to keep the place just bright enough.

Justin, at first, felt embarrassed in babysitting such a little kid who kept asking questions but still, Lucas managed to give him a laugh or two which is a big deal, especially with what was happening now. Justin turned to look at Lucas' appearance.

Lucas was wearing a black t-shirt that looked as though it belonged to someone else and small kid cargo pants. Strangely enough, despite his raggedy appearance, Lucas' hair managed to be smooth down and clean as though he combed it thoroughly. And as usual, Lucas had a big goofy grin on his face. Every time there was someone was passed them, Lucas would show his grin and say 'hello' despite the silent reply.

Justin felt bad for Lucas because he seemed to be out of place here. He was so happy and excited that he found a family that seemed to disregard his optimism. Justin touched his long scar on his left arm. Hard times like these made it difficult to share happiness.

"Eight I think…" Lucas responded, frowning for a moment before smiling immediately, "I'll be nine in two months!" Justin couldn't help but give a wry smile at the kid. Such a bright attitude. Too bad it'll end in two weeks. That was what happened to him when he was first here.

"Well, we'll put that in your identification card okay?" Justin said.

"Ifenti… Identi- what card?" Lucas asked, tongue twisted and unable to say the word.

"Identification," Justin repeated, shaking his long blond yellow hair, "These places are locked so the only way to get through them is a card." Justin took a card out of his pocket which showed his name, birthday, and etc. There was also a picture of him. "You need to renew your picture once every two years and of course, to see Nova."

"No… va?" Lucas repeated confused. Justin sighed. So many questions to answer.

"Mr. Nova actually," Justin amended, "He is the leader of our operation. Any new members must meet him and existing members must meet him as well so that he knows you."

"Oh…" Lucas paused for a moment, "So he is our boss right?"

"Sort of," Justin shrugged his shoulder as they continued to walk down the long hallway. He put his hand onto his head to cover his eyes. Darn it, two days passed and he was tired.

"Justin!" Justin paused and saw tall twenty year old someone ahead, leaning against the wall right next to one of the burning torches. The person had soft and short dark black hair that was layered one over another. He was wearing over his black shirt a navy blue jacket with orange fur on the collar. He was wearing tight blue jeans with two large pockets in the front. He turned his head and Justin could see the scar going from his right eye down to his left cheek. His brown eyes expressed toughness but there was a small hint of compassion underneath the layers. "I've been waiting so long that they made me rekindle the torches again and again. I want to talk to you about the mission."

"Hello Leo," Justin said. Leo paused a moment and Justin realized that Leo was looking at Lucas who appeared in front.

"Good morning!" Lucas said happily. Leo looked taken aback, which surprised Justin since Leo rarely looked surprise, and looked at Just for some answers.

"New kid," Justin mumbled, feeling embarrassed that he was babysitting, "Just taking him to Nova so I'll come back here after I'm done."

"Is he a PM?" Leo interjected as though he didn't listen to Justin's explanation.

"What's a PM?" Lucas asked eagerly, "Is that a rank?" He turned his head back and forth from each person.

"No, he isn't," Justin said, ignoring Lucas' question, "At least not that we know of." Leo stared at the still grinning Lucas who now looked more confused.

"Good," Leo said softly. He got up and away from the wall and sighed, "I'll take care of the kid. You go on with preparing for the mission we need to do."

"Wait, you want to…" Justin was baffled that he couldn't say anything else and had to point at the still confused Lucas.

"You been out for two days and I've been bored without anything to do," Leo said, "I've already got my stuff ready. How about you?" Justin fell silent and embarrassed. Leo hated being cooped up here in the main station.

"Well…" Justin mumbled, hoping to find a good excuse.

"You get ready and I'll take care of the kid. It'll be faster." Without listening anymore, Leo turned away. Lucas looked up at Justin as if hoping for help.

"Sorry Lucas," Justin sighed, "Leo really wants to do this mission so go on with him okay?"

"All right," Lucas grinned his goofy grin, "Make sure to tell me about the mission!" With that he left to follow Leo. Justin sighed as he watched the two leave. Leo was really strange but this is the first time he ever wanted to volunteer to help a newbie. And he was one of them… Justin turned away to go to his room to prepare.

…

"My name is Lucas and yours is Leo right? Say we both have the letter 'L' in our name! I just realized that! Do you know Justin that well? Are you guys friends?" Lucas kept talking like a rapid machine gun while Leo remained silent until he stopped in the middle of the hall and turn to point at the door on the side.

"This is the cafeteria," Leo showed Lucas the large door which was slightly ajar so that Lucas could see many people huddled and eating at top speed, "Don't go in there unless you have a buddy."

"Oh," Lucas said, taken aback, "Who do I-"

"So if you're hungry, let me know and I'll come with you. We can talk there," Leo interrupted before walking on. Lucas cocked his head to the side as though confused but shrugged his shoulder and continued following Leo. There were a couple of people staring at them now as they watch the tall and strong Leo being followed by some short scrawny kid.

"Say, what's a PM?" Lucas asked Leo. Leo didn't say anything and continued to walk so Lucas assumed that he needed to be more specific. "You asked Justin if I was a PM so what is that?" Leo stopped for a moment in the hall, causing Lucas to bump into his legs. "Ouch! Sorry!" Leo turned around and stooped down till he and Lucas were face to face. It was amazing. Leo, a man with little words, stooping down to the level of the small Lucas.

"PMs are those who live with a curse life," Leo said. Lucas stared back confused.

"Cursed?" Leo closed his eyes and immediately to Lucas' shock, Leo's back shoulder burst into flames, engulfing the area with warmth. Before Lucas could yelp in surprise the flames immediately disappeared, leaving the jacket intact still though smoke could still be seen.

"Fire proof clothing," Leo said staring at Lucas, "I have Typhlosion genes inside of me." Lucas looked wide eye at the statement. Leo stared as though he envied Lucas. "I'm a PM – a Pokemorph."

…

"Amazing," Cynthia gasped as she looked at her Pokedex.

"What is?" Rad asked, carrying a basin with water and a towel, as he came into the small bedroom where the boy was sleeping. It was small and had no window but at least there was no one suspicious to be seen. The boy was breathing heavily and his fever was still there but at least they had the proper medication and didn't need to go to the hospital. Rad couldn't help but stare at the long blue ears as they continued to twitch. It was creepy. "You know, I have a lot of customers that need me so whatever you want just help yourself." He placed the basin on the table next to the boy before turning to Cynthia. "So what is amazing?"

"This," Cynthia said, showing her Pokedex to Rad who saw the image and data of a Lucario.

"Okay," Rad said shrugging, not getting the picture, "So?"

"The Pokedex showed me this data when I aimed it at the boy," Cynthia explained. Rad frowned for a moment before it hit him.

"What?!" Rad exclaimed shocked.

"Shhhh," Cynthia hissed as she turned to the boy but he just turned in his sleep and continued to lie still. "You'll wake him up."

"You mean, this kid… has a Lucario inside of him?" Rad whispered back, "Okay, I admit he does look like one but a Lucario?" Cynthia paused, not able to say anything. There were so many questions and little answers. She got the towel from Rad and soaked it into the basin before placing it gently onto the boy's head. The boy sighed deeply as though relaxed and started to breathe more calmly.

"Rad you go ahead and deal with the customers. I need to go out so make sure no one comes in here."

"Oh, okay," Rad said before hurrying out. Cynthia took one more look at the boy before leaving the room. What is going on here? Cynthia could feel it in her blood that this is just the beginning.

**Author's Notes**

You know I always wonder. Do Pokemorphs give data to Pokedex? I mean they have the Pokemon's DNA in them so do Pokedex take the DNA or do Pokedex go by appearance? But if by appearance then someone could just cosplay and data can be taken... Well, I'll leave it to your interpretation.

We meet Leo who is our first know Pokemorph in Lucas' past/future. So that answers some of your questions about the future Pokemorphs.

Anyways, let's thank my reviewers.

...

Thank you

**SynctrainerLucas**

**dark5523**

**Furryfur **(don't we all despise them. XP)

**Jarkes**

**PeachyKeenx088**

**Ketchum Kid **(Ah, the gym is sound proof so that noises outside can't be heard. Also the gym is kinda far away from the rest of the two so impact is not that strong. I know the explanation is stupid but can't think of anything else. XP thanks for the review.)

**renaryuugu27**

**RWT**

**Pikana**

**Emperor Empoleon **(Legendary Pokemorphs? Ohohohohoho. you'll just have to wait and see ;). by the way anything new in Hearthrome besides the gym leader order? in terms of story line? thanks for your help.)

**Hoshi **(hahaha, Lucas and food goes together. thanks for the reivew.)

for reviewing.

...

Well, that's it from me. Stay tune and don't leave so soon because updates are now quick and random. XP

I'm back in my writing mood so look out!

See you in the next chapter.

**-JapanDreamer**


	48. Why not Two?

**Disclaimer: No one was hurt in the making of this disclaimer. At least not in real life.**

Hey guys! new update and guess what! It is very long!

So be happy. :D

Anyways, enjoy the chapter! I'm going to finish this off hopefully by the next one.

**Chapter 45:**

"Wing Attack!" Damion ordered and Staravia, with its wings glowing, charged straight at the hopeless grass Pokemon. The effect was immediate as the Pokemon flew ten feet into the air before collapsing to the ground and fainting. The buzzard sound from the scoreboard, indicating that Damion won the first round and Gardenia had only two Pokemon remaining.

"Nooo!" Gardenia cried, doing a very distinct impression of The Scream, "So fast!"

"Too easy!" Damion grinned, "At this rate, I would only need to use Staravia! Your Pokemon are no match for the invincible Damion!"

"Damion!" Dawn called out, holding her hands like a triangle that bordered around her mouth, "You do realize that flying types are effective against grass type and it has nothing to do with your special abilities." But Damion didn't seem to have heard Dawn for he was jumping up and down at his first win. "Whatever," Dawn rolled her eyes as she continued to watch. Still, Damion was a good battler. He was trying to think ahead in terms of battle plans now and not being too reckless though this was only the first battle.

"Don't you dare think that you're winning just because of this one battle!" Gardenia called out, "Let's go Turtwig!" Out of her Pokeball came a little green turtle that seemed strangely familiar looking.

"Hey!" Damion exclaimed, "Lucas has that Pokemon as well!" _Though_, now that Damion thought about it, _Gardenia's Turtwig looked a bit more… vicious?_ The grass Pokemon looked more focus and ready for battle. It didn't have the lazy look that Lucas' Turtwig has. Clearly, Gardenia has been training hers more.

"Well, behold the power of this Pokemon!" Gardenia cried, "Turtwig, use Flash!" The Pokemon immediately blinded the whole stadium with a brilliant flash of light. It wouldn't have been so bad if there wasn't glass everywhere. That made the light bounce off and amplify, becoming stronger and larger. Soon the whole gym was filled with light as though Ledian had come and brightened the whole place.

"AHH!" Damion and Dawn had to shield from the light and by the time the light was gone and Damion could open his eyes, his bird Pokemon was already on the ground, completely unable to battle any longer due to suffering a huge shock from immense amount of brilliant light that lit up the whole area. "WHAT?!" Damion sputtered. Gardenia looked equally as shock, as though this non-attack move actually brought down a Pokemon. "How in the world did this happen?!" Damion sputtered.

"Hard work and training," Gardenia declared as she rubbed her eyes, "You would never understand the power in grass type!"

"You didn't even know what was going on!" Damion challenged back, "You won by pure luck!"

"Then show to me that you can still win even if luck is on my side!" Gardenia said grinning, showing for the first time that she was enjoying this battle.

_I can't believe that Damion lost by light_, Dawn thought as she watched the frustrated challenger stomped his feet as though he was going to have a tantrum. "Lucas," Dawn exclaimed turning her head back to talk to Lucas, "Don't you see how training can --." She stopped when she realized that Lucas has fallen asleep and had not watched the battle at all. He looked as though he was looking at his knees but Dawn could hear the soft small snoring coming out of Lucas' mouth as he breathed in and out.

"Again?!" Dawn sighed but gave up in keeping Lucas awake. She turned her head back to the battlefield, yet, she couldn't help but turn her head again and watched Lucas sleep. He looked peaceful when he was asleep and for some reason, Dawn felt the same thing as well as she watched him.

…

"Are you seeing this?!" a voice hissed and whispered with a sound of shock.

"I am, but I'm not sure if I'm seeing it correctly," the other voice whispered back.

"I never thought I would see this day," another voice muttered, "Let alone continuously. I thought he would stop."

Lucas continued to hear the whispers and mummers around him as he scooped a spoonful of soup out of his metal bowl. He didn't really understand what the people mean, since he was only eight going on nine. All he knew was that two weeks has passed and people were now giving him a slight incredulous look as they pass him by.

"What are they whispering about?" Lucas whispered like everybody else since he thought that this was some special new rule.

"Nothing," Leo said as he chewed his food. True to his word, Leo went with Lucas to the cafeteria to eat every time the boy was hungry, which was like every half hour, even when Justin and Yuma were there like they are now. It sort of became a tradition. They were sitting at a long wooden table with matching benches. Leo was sitting next to Lucas while Justin was sitting next to Yuma. Most of the time there wasn't much talking except from Yuma and Lucas, who was fascinated by these adventures that Yuma elaborately described.

Justin was amaze at Leo. The guy never hanged out with many people. It was only because of the many missions that Justin managed to somewhat get Leo to talk with him. Yet, Lucas managed to get Leo to open up in less than three day while Yuma on the other hand…

"They are whispering about how amazed they are that a PM is eating together with other normal people!" Yuma yelled through an overflowing mouthful of food, completely oblivious to her surroundings. Immediately, people around hushed up and looked very embarrassed as they tried to finish their food. Leo's eyes flashed dangerously at Yuma's statement and Justin had to give Leo a quick "I'll handle this" look.

"Shut up, Yummy," Justin groaned as he said Yuma's nickname. He didn't like being in the spotlight at all, but he wasn't going to act like everyone else does with a PM, "And this "PM" has a name – _Leo_. He's a person, not a freak. How would you feel if I just called you a monster each time?"

"Well…" Yuma pouted, understanding her rude behavior. She gave an apologetic look to Leo's hardened face and gulped down her food before trying to justify her means "It is true. None of them ever want to come and join us even though this place is open to them. I just wish we could act more like a family…" Yuma put her head down on the table and sighed sadly.

"There are more people with Leo's gifted abilities?" Lucas asked, wide eyed. This was the first time he heard about this though if he thought about it, it sounded obvious. Yuma looked taken aback at Lucas' choice of words though Justin wasn't surprise. Lucas never thought of Leo with a curse, more like a special talent. Maybe that's why Leo…

"Yeah," Yuma rolled her eyes after she recovered from her surprise, "Though with different abilities compare to Leo. I mean look at Assassin."

"Assassin…?" Lucas asked, confused. Justin felt downright creep out that Lucas could say the deadly word with such ease. Meanwhile, after hearing Lucas' description of a PM as gifted, Leo just stared at his food as though he was lost in his own thought and wasn't listening in to the conversation anymore.

Suddenly the name "Assassin" dawned on Lucas. It was that blind girl he met when he first arrived here and who looked ready to cut his throat. "Now that I think about it…" Lucas turned his head around, "Where is she?"

"Duh, don't you get it?" Yuma said. Lucas' silence seemed to respond Yuma's question and she sighed and sucked on her spoon as she explained, "She is a PM, well, actually she is a special case."

"Leo." Justin jumped and almost fell out of the bench at the sound. He looked up and saw a silvery white hair girl and milky colored eyes. _Shit_, Justin thought, his heart pounding like crazy, _she really knows how to move silently_.

"Well, speak of the devil," Yuma grinned, "Hi Assassin!" She waved her hand so enthusiastically. Immediately the room felt suddenly cold and tense. All round the room people huddled even closer than usual. The sound of scraping wood can be heard. Assassin stared unemotionally at Yuma before addressing to Leo who stared just as equally unemotional as well.

"Nova sent me to tell you that he has a mission for us two," Assassin stated her purpose of coming here. The two PM stared at each other as though there was some kind of war going between the two of them. Despite the age difference, it was obvious that both looked at each other as though equals… as rivals.

"When do we leave?" Leo asked after several long silent minutes. Lucas stared wide eye at the Assassin who was the same age as him. Inside, Lucas felt really excited. Maybe she'll join them for lunch too and discuss with Leo about the mission. And then Leo won't feel as lonely as to being the only one with abilities.

"Now," Assassin responded and paused a moment before talking again, "unless you're still busy." Leo looked around the table as though he just noticed his surroundings. There was an uneasy silence before Leo responded.

"Fine," Leo got up from the bench, "I'm finished anyways." Justin noticed that Leo had barely touched his food though Justin decided not to say anything. Assassin stared at the group before silently walking away as though she was a ghost instead. Leo went to follow her but not before he reached out his hand and stroked Lucas' head and said softly, "See you later." He left and the door slammed shut. Immediately the room became noisy again, though this time people talked loudly.

"I never liked them," one of the guys spat before sliding the bench away from the table; "Those freaks made me lose my appetite. Let's go."

Lucas noticed how Justin and Yuma glared as some of the men agreed and left the cafeteria. The others shook their head and frowned as they continued to eat. "What the hell," Justin muttered, "We all have the same goal, yet we can't…" He stabbed his food with his fork angrily. Yuma pouted as though she lost her appetite, which is very strange considering how she can eat just as much as Lucas. Lucas stared confused. He didn't understand why everyone was acting so hostile when they are supposed to be family. Still he couldn't help but ask…

"What do you mean Assassin is special?" Yuma and Justin didn't respond for so long that Lucas thought that they were now mad at _him_. Lucas stared at his bowl as he continued to eat in silence.

"Do you know how PM came to be?" Justin finally asked. Lucas stared up surprised and shook his head.

"Some years ago, there were suggestions of having humans with Pokemon powers to bring a better world," Justin said, "In a way; it did make sense to some. People with powers will still have a human brain so communication will be improved since Pokemon can understand but can't speak. Plus more people will be able to work just as efficiently, creating more jobs. But…" Justin paused as though he was trying to find the best way to continue with this explanation, "as usual others have different ideas."

"What do you mean?" Lucas asked.

"W-E-A-PONS," Yuma said as though she was a teacher, "Pokemon have special abilities, especially legendary ones. This makes the idea dangerous. You could build an army out of PMs. In fact, that was how this place…"

"That's enough," Justin snapped as Lucas stared wide eye. No need to tell Lucas about that, Justin thought. "The point is that people start experimenting and it was really dangerous. Inserting genes into human DNA to replicate repeatedly is life risking since the human body tends to reject it, causing huge massive cell and organ damage which tend to include the heart and brain more specifically."

Lucas stared confused, so Yuma tried to dumb things down so an eight year old could understand. "More people die than live when they take Pokemon genes." Lucas fell silent as he tried to digest the idea.

"And even then," Justin continued, "they are forced to go through more tests to see if their power works since the power must be able to be fully adapted to the human body." Justin stopped and thought carefully before speaking again, "In fact, I think the first successful PM ever recorded had less than a _half_ of the Pokemon's power." _PMs are those who live a cursed life_. Leo's words seemed to echo in Lucas' mind over and over again like broken recorder.

"In fact," Justin continued, "it is still dangerous to this day. Very people survive… Nova believed that there it isn't luck but by gene itself that determine if humans can accept or not." Justin waited as Lucas digested these hard facts.

"But what does this have to do with Assa-?"

"Ever since the scientific breakthrough of getting a human to take in 100% of the Pokemon's power, there has been another topic." Justin leaned in closer and whispered so softly that Lucas had to lean in.

"If it is possible for humans to take in Pokemon genes, why not try for two?" Justin watched Lucas' dim face slowly started to realize what Justin was saying.

"Assassin was the first successful human to have two unlike Pokemon genes within her." Justin shuddered at the thought of how much science has completely dominated their way of life now and how much Assassin is less human because of it. "She is always referred to by her PM as a freak within a freak group."

…

The boy woke up suddenly as though he had awakened from a nightmare. He felt the cool surface of the wet towel on his forehead. He got up slowly and winced when he felt the pain in his arm. That was when he realized that he was bandaged carefully. He looked around the dark room. The loneliness and unknown reminded him of the white operating table. He could hear the noises, the talking, the mouth that he was trying to scream from but couldn't.

Fear was creeping up that when the door suddenly swung open, he jumped up and moved toward the opposite side of the wall.

"Oh, good," the woman's voice said, "You're awake." The person dumped what looked like a pile of clothes onto the bed. The boy continued to stare fearfully and put his fists up in fighting position. "Oh, come on. I saved your life and this is the treatment I get?" That was when the boy noticed that it was that blond hair lady who saved him when he was back at the lab. He remembered following her and fighting and then… He felt his arms falling down to his side.

"Can't you say anything?" The boy looked up as the lady sat in a wooden chair and continued to stare at him. "Well?"

The boy merely stared and didn't respond so Cynthia decided to do the talking instead. "Well, at least you seem to be able to understand me somewhat. My name is Cynthia. You-" Cynthia directed to the pile she brought, "those clothes are for you so hurry up and change. I'm so glad they have a costume store here." With that Cynthia got up and head for the door, only to pause at the doorway. "Come out when you're finished." With that the door softly closed behind her.

The boy stared at the pile of clothes with great curiosity. He inched his way to it and stared at it before he finally started grabbing the jacket.

…

"Go Monferno!" Damion yelled and the fire Pokemon popped out.

"Fire!" Gardenia gasped. "NO! Turtwig use Razor Leaf!"

"Monferno use Flame Wheel!" The monkey rolled up into a wheel of fire that started to spin at great velocity and charged straight at Turtwig who tried to counter with a storm of leaves. However, the leaves immediately burned into ashes as they came in contact with the flames and Monferno left a straight line of flames in its wake.

"Withdraw!" Gardenia yelled.

"Monferno! Finish the job!" Damion yelled as Monferno slammed at the turtle Pokemon. The turtle Pokemon staggered but was still standing thanks to its defensive power.

"Mach Punch!" Damion said and Monferno slammed its fist into Turtwig's large mouth.

"Turtwig! Use Bite!" Gardenia tried to counter.

"CHAAAA!" Monferno shook its hand, trying to get Turtwig to let go but to no avail. The green turtle's mouth clamped firmly onto the monkey's hand.

"Monferno don't stop now!" Damion yelled, "Use Mach Punch again!"" This time Monferno slammed its other fist into Turtwig's jaw and the Pokemon finally let go, staggering before collapsing to the ground.

"No!" Gardenia cried as the buzzard sound to indicate that Damion has won this match, "Not my Turtwig!"

"Yes!" Damion grinned as he and Monferno dance with joy. "Just one more and that badge is mine!"

"This isn't over yet!" Gardenia cried as she took out her last Pokeball out. "Don't fail me now! Roserade!" The flower Pokemon appeared out, looking very elegant. Its white hair billowed in the wind.

"Like I said," Damion declared, "You don't stand a chance with a Fire type! Monferno use Flame Wheel!"

"Oh, no!" Gardenia exclaimed as though she was going to lose, "Not another fire type! But…" This time her face became sly as she grinned, "this time I got something to counter that. Roserade use Rain Dance!"

"What?!" Damion gasped as suddenly a huge thundercloud appeared and heavy rain started to pour, causing the flames to be extinguished. Left in its place was a very soaked and unhappy monkey. The good news for Dawn in all of this unluckiness was that the rain was only hitting at the field and not at the stadium so that she and Lucas were still very dry.

_Nice_, Dawn thought, _that attack will lower fire type moves and the speed of fire type Monferno will decrease._ She took out her Pokedex to check up on the method of counterattacking. What will you do now Damion?

"Monferno!" Damion yelled, "Change of plan! Use-"

"Roserade!" Gardenia interjected, "Use Weather Ball!" Roserade held its flower hands into the air and immediately raindrops started to changed directions and toward the flower hands until they formed a large water globe. Then Roserade threw it at Monferno like a bowling ball. The attack covered Monferno with more water and it immediately fainted.

"NO!" Damion yelled, but it was too late. The buzzard sounded and both trainers were down to their last Pokemon.

"Yeah!" Gardenia jumped up with happiness. "Victory is coming!"

Dawn whistled in amazement. Smart move. Using Weather Ball with Rain Dance and voila – a water type attack effective against fire.

"Dang!" Damion sighed, but this time he was grinning, "This battle is just getting more and more interesting. I wouldn't like it any other way."

"Well then," Gardenia grinned, "Let's make this last battle the most spectacular one!" Damion nodded in agreement.

Dawn felt her pulse rising with excitement. The final battle. The only chance left to get the Eterna badge.

**Author's Notes**

Yeah, real dramatic. lol.

Anyways, thought I should give more background history about Lucas and PM and, of course, Assassin. XP

Let's thank my reviewers before I go.

...

thank you

**Furryfur**

**Pikana**

**PeachyKeenx088**

**Sparky**

**RWT**

**hydro-serpent58**

**EmperorEmpoleon**

**dark5523**

for reviewing.

...

All right that's it from me.

thanks for reading and I'll see you in the next chapter.

**-JapanDreamer**


	49. Final Attack

**Disclaimer: In light of this discussion, the writer wished to those who are in disbelief that she does not by any means own Pokemon.**

Hey guys, another update. lol. though sad to say is that school will be starting soon and updates will be **slower** and **shorter**. Two words people don't like. XP

Anyways, enjoy the chapter!

**Chapter 46:**

"All right," Damion grinned, "One more battle and I win..." Dawn sighed. Damion had only one chance left to win this final battle. Damion has only one Pokemon left… uh oh. Dawn wondered if Damion realized the problem as well.

"Damion!" Dawn called out, "What is your last Pokemon?" Damion stared strangely at Dawn since this seemed like a way too easy question to answer.

"Why it is," Damion took out a Pokeball and out came a water weasel Pokemon. "Buizel." The Pokemon stared at Damion with the most utter disgust on its face. Buizel looked up into the sky as the rain still continued to fall. It crossed its arms and turned its head to the side as though rejecting a love confession.

Damion puffed his chest proudly for answering this question correctly. Dawn stared to see if Damion realized the problem but when he didn't, Dawn realized that she needed to nudge Damion in the right direction.

"Damion what type is Buizel?" Dawn asked another question. Damion stared confused at the strange question but answered simply, "Water."

"Good," Dawn said, hoping that Damion would get it at least this moment, "what type is Roserade?"

"Grass," Gardenia interjected as though this was some kind of game. She had her hand raised and was waving it around like a excited student. Damion, getting tired of this charade of questions, asked "What your point?" Dawn felt like pounding her seat in frustration at Damion's slow brain.

"Is water weak against grass?" Dawn yelled.

"Well, yeah, duh it-" Damion stopped and stared at his water Pokemon and then looked at the grass type Roserade in front of him. That's when it finally hit him. "Oh." There was nothing else to say.

"Oh!" Gardenia said as well, pounding her fist it the other palm of her hand as she too realized it. "Now I see! Well in that case, Roserade use Grass Knot!" Damion barely had the chance to order an attack.

"Buizel dodge!" Buizel stared disdainfully at his owner and refused to move. Therefore the attack hit straight on at this water Pokemon. Buizel growled in pain, realizing the situation here. It must fight. "Listen to me!" Damion yelled, "Use Water Gun!" Buizel got up, starting to take Roserade as its opponent. But instead of using the water attack, it slashed its tail and two white crescent shape blades hit Roserade who yelled in pain. Gardenia flinched at the attack which was obviously not a Water Gun.

"C-counter it! Roserade!"

"What?" Damion gaped, "What is that attack?"

"Sonicboom!" Dawn called out, always two steps ahead, with her Pokedex in her hand, "A normal attack which would be more effective than Water Gun which is a water type. Personally, your Buizel is actually smarter when it comes to fighting." Buizel grinned at Dawn's comment and snickered at Damion who immediately fumed.

"Whose side are you on?!" Damion yelled at Dawn, "Buizel use that attack again!" But this time Buizel charged straight forward and slammed against Roserade.

"Now that is a Quick Attack!" Dawn called out.

"You don't need to tell me!" Damion yelled feeling frustrated that Buizel isn't listening to me. "Why won't you listen to me?!" Dawn paused as she watched this huge problem as Buizel continued to fight as it wished. Perhaps it is stronger than it looks and uncontrollable for a starting trainer like Damion. It was just luck that he managed to catch it in the first place and perhaps it was simply because of the situation at the haunted mansion that Buizel obeyed its owner.

Dawn checked her Pokedex for the status of Buizel. She knew it. Buizel is quite a bit stronger than what Damion could handle. Perhaps if he trainer it a bit more… Dawn scrolled down and observed the attacks that Buizel knew when a particular attack stood out. Dawn gaped and slowly grinned as she looked at Damion's frustrated face as Buizel continued to attack and dodged while Roserade kept missing.

There was a way to win, but with Buizel's stubbornness, Dawn wondered if it is even possible too use. Dawn turned her head and saw Lucas still asleep.

"Honestly," Dawn sighed, "This is such a crucial battle that you can't even stay awake for it?"

Lucas snored softly in reply.

…

"Hey, you're finally finished," Cynthia said looking up from the table and drinking from a mug of tea. Rad looked up from the newspaper he was reading. The Lucario boy felt uneasy and kept looking down at his clothes as though he couldn't believe the sheer weight that was holding him down.

The boy was wearing a yellow almost white color shirt over a long sleeve blue color jacket with black shoulder pads. He wore matching long athletic pants which was hold up by a thick black belt with white crystal studs decorated. He had on black hiking boots and thick black gloves. On the boy's head was a black bandana tied around his head. His blue ears were long and straight – unable to hide from the human's eye.

"Nice," Cynthia said, "So the clothes fit somewhat." She got up and inspected the clothes. Rad couldn't help but see that Cynthia was acting so motherly in this case. "Now remember," Cynthia said, "If people ask about your ear, just say that they are for cosplaying as a Lucario. Okay?" The boy stared; looking confused, but didn't say a word.

Rad couldn't help but stared indignant at the situation. Cosplaying? Great now it is normal for children in the middle of the street to dress up like it was Halloween? What is this world coming to? Cynthia groaned in frustration. "Honestly, are you ever going to speak?" Cynthia didn't wait for a reply as she got up and paced around. She was in deep thought, trying to figure something out.

"You know," Rad interjected, feeling the need to be in this silent one way conversation, "We can't just keep calling him 'hey' or 'you.'" Cynthia paused as she looked at the silent boy who just stared at his boots as though waiting to be punished.

"Well, in that case," Cynthia cocked her head to the side. She looked around until she noticed Rad's customer list. She grabbed the clipboard and started to flip through it until she found a name that seemed suitable. "You," Cynthia pointed at the boy who jerked his head up anxiously, "from now on will be called Alex." There was a silence at this sudden decision before Rad sputtered with indignation.

"You're giving him that guy's name?" Rad asked incredulous. He grabbed the clipboard to double check and saw that he was right. "That man is lazy, fat, and broke my bike without paying. Why didn't you give him something like... Fred? He's a good guy."

"Oh, please Alex sounds so much better," Cynthia scoffed, though she was uneasy at the characteristics of the guy whose name she chose, "Plus its short."

"Ah… Alex?" Cynthia and Rad jumped. They turned their head simultaneously at the kid.

"What?" Cynthia asked finally.

"Alex?" the boy repeated, pointing to himself, "That's my name?"

"Well, what do you know," Rad grinned, "he can talk. Can you say my name? Rad? R-ah-oud?" Cynthia frowned uneasily at the boy's question.

"Rad, he is not a Chartot," Cynthia groaned as she stared at the boy. "You don't have a name?" Cynthia finally asked. The boy stared and shook his head. "Well, where did you live? Where are your parents?" The boy just fell silent and shook his head again. Cynthia frowned. Memory loss maybe? Or perhaps he is hiding something…

"Well, we'll go with Alex until we know your real name," Cynthia said, "until then just bear with us." Cynthia paused. The question now is 'what are they going to do?' It was obvious that the Jupiter woman was shocked to see this boy alive and moving, let alone using Pokemon attacks. That woman was planning something in that building and whatever it was, she was not done.

…

"Jupiter, you have failed to keep the building's main objective quiet and destroyed the facility while you're at it." Right to the point. Jupiter scoffed and turned her head to the side as though she wasn't interested in listening to Saturn as of what she did wrong.

Jupiter has just arrived at the headquarters of Team Galactic. It seemed to be more of a planetarium. She was in the middle of the 'meeting hall' for the commanders. It was completely white as though made with marble. There were many doors (not the ones with doorknobs but the ones that can open electronically and were reinforced with steel) on each side and finding one's location is nearly impossible without years of service to this organization. The white walls extended to the sky before curving in at the center. The top of the ceiling and the center of the room had the symbol of the yellow letter 'G.' Jupiter managed to have time to change and fix her hair back to normal and presentable before she met with Saturn.

Saturn had blue hair with two thick strands sticking out at the side like small Miltank horns. He was wearing the usual black long sleeve shirt and long pants that the design looked like wrapped bandages and he was also wearing the white vest over the shirt. He had on casual white closed toe shoes. Of course in the middle of his shirt was the usual 'G' symbol. His blue eyes were narrowed like a father's face when dealing with a misbehaving child. Despite the same rank, Saturn always acted as though he was in charge of all the commanders. In a way, it was reasonable since he was the more responsible one.

"Don't try to deny it," Saturn interjected, "I received news from Venus."

"Your point?" Jupiter asked, looking bored, as she inspected her purple painted fingernails.

"My point?! Jupiter, your mission was to be as discreet as possible! Now people are going to be suspicious! As we speak now, we've been trying to create a cover up story!"

"You mean as _you_ speak," Jupiter interjected_. Hmmm, perhaps she should repaint her nails again_. Saturn was making angry sounds like a sputtering train but took a deep breath and spoke calmly though there was a vein popping out of his head.

"As much as this kind of situation should not be overviewed, the boss decided to give you a grace period." Saturn's statement actually caught Jupiter's attention.

"Grace period?" Jupiter asked a bit surprise. Not that she was complaining, it was just that it was really unlike the boss. Mostly it was torture or menial task work.

"You brought information on the attacker and that new experiment," Saturn stated, biting his lips as though he was furious at the sudden kindness Jupiter was receiving. "The boss wasn't going to punish someone for that." Saturn handed out his hand and Jupiter just stared at him as though she knew what he wanted.

"I can give it to him myself," Jupiter retorted.

"The boss asked me to pick it up since I need to use it anyways," Saturn stated flatly, "Don't complain." Jupiter growled and grabbed the recorder out of her pocket and threw it underhanded to Saturn who skillfully caught it.

"Trying to gain favoritism huh?" Jupiter said sarcastically. Saturn stared a moment at Jupiter.

"If you don't like it then don't cause any more problems." He turned around and walked to the door at the far north. He paused for a moment at the doorway. "If you still have the research papers on that experiment's mutations and Pokemon genes, hand them over to the boss personally." With that Saturn walked through the sliding steel door and disappeared.

"Tch," Jupiter said, rubbing her head, "Always trying to be fair. That's what I hate about him. No bad quality to complain about to the boss." Jupiter walked in the direction opposite of Saturn and to the southern door. She walked out of the door to face another large room, only this time with other Galactic grunts who worked under her.

"Commander Jupiter!" They said as they saluted in military style. Jupiter didn't say anything and continued to walk past them, only pausing in front of one of the grunts at the end.

"I want the files that were retrieved from my old office placed on my desk now," Jupiter said as she continued to walk.

"Um, commander." Jupiter stopped. Questioning orders were unacceptable and the grunt who spoke up seemed to know this for he spoke very timidly. "There is a problem." Jupiter turned around, a bit of anger in her eyes. "Well," the grunt sputtered, "It appeared to be that someone had already taken them all."

"What?!" Jupiter yelled. She grabbed the grunt by the neck and raised him to the air. He gasped from being choked as Jupiter stared at him. "Say that again!" Jupiter demanded in a threateningly manner. The other grunts flinched slightly though remained in their place as they watch their comrade sputtered and slowly turned red.

"Someone… broke into your office… took every file… and left… we have a… video on the security camera over there at the TV." Jupiter dropped the grunt to the ground and marched to the plasma TV hanging on the wall and pressed play as she watched the digital footage. As she watched the picture, her face turned from anger to surprise than to anger and surprise.

"No way…" Jupiter muttered. She got up and took the CD out that recorded this footage. Without a word she left the room immediately from the way she came back. This footage must be given to the boss immediately and someone specifically… absolutely cannot see this.

…

Tory gaped at the papers he took from the building. He never thought that he would've taken something this big. He looked at the complicated formulas and pictures of a human body with numbers all over it. He didn't really understand it too much but the briefs explained enough. However, these pictures of this particular boy, despite the magnitude of the experiment, were nothing compared to what Tory was now holding in his hand.

A machine… Tory couldn't read the rest of the paper due to the codes it was written in but those people were building something and these papers were obviously highly classified. He carefully grabbed the papers with his shaking hands and placed them into the folder they were in. Tory trembled at the powerful information he has. If this gets out…

Tory shook his head and turned to see his surroundings. Trees gave so much shadow that it felt like it was night time. Well, that is what it was like to hideout in the forest. He took out the photo of him and his sister again. It was quite crumpled though Tory could still make out the smiling faces. A dead end in finding her and a new more dangerous path he had found.

…

"Buizel! Use Quick Attack!" Buizel used Sonic Boom. "Buizel use Sonic Boom!" Buizel use Swift. "Buizel use any attack!" Buizel used Agility to raise its speed. "Will you at least listen to me?!" Damion yelled so angrily. Dawn sighed. This is going bad. Buizel is doing a superb job by itself but it sooner or later that Roserade will manage to strike again and when that happened, Buizel will have a harder time to continue the charade of fighting.

"Why isn't my attacks landing first?!" Gardenia yelled in frustration. She then paused and looked up at the storm clouds, still producing large quantity of rain. Of course, the water Pokemon's speed is raised when it was raining. To solve that answer and to deal the final blow, there is only one attack needed. "Roserade use Sunny Day!" Roserade paused and gave a war cry. Immediately, the rainy clouds disappeared and sunlight shone through quite strongly.

"What?" Damion gaped as he winced against the strong light.

"Damion!" Dawn yelled, "Get Buizel out of there!"

"Too late!" Gardenia called out, "Solar Beam!" Thanks to Sunny Day, Roserade didn't need to charge up for power and immediately blasted a strong powerful beam of light straight at Buizel.

"Buizel!" Damion yelled out in hoped that his voice would somehow knock the attack off course. Buizel, though surprise at the sudden blast of attack, held its ground and without a single hesitation slammed its fist to the ground. And miraculously, the Solar Beam stopped as though a thick steel wall just came between it. Then, even more miraculously, the attack took a 180 degree turn and shot right back at the baffled Roserade. Dust shot up everywhere and made the entire battlefield

"What?!" Gardenia yelled. Her Roserade was completely weakened by the blast though it was still standing. Out of the dust, Gardenia saw two glowing eyes and a long white arm. It jumped up into the air and slammed its fist against the enemy. "Roserade!" The dust finally settled and left in Roserade's place was a frozen statue of it.

"BZZZT!" The scoreboard sounded, indicating that Buizel is, with no doubt, the winner.

"Wh-what just happened here?" Damion said through his shocked open mouth. He saw a large column of ice where Buizel had stabbed its fist to the ground. Buizel stared at the scene with a disgruntle face. It looked to see that its trainer was the winner and with a snort of disgust returned back into its Pokeball.

"Ice Punch! Effective against grass types!" Dawn yelled to the baffled Damion and shocked Gardenia, "Buizel first used it to counter the Solar Beam and the second one to hit Roserade!" Damion didn't say anything and simply picked up the Pokeball which his Buizel resided.

"If you had that kind of attack, why didn't you use it before?" Damion asked to the Pokeball but as usual, there was no response to the silent and disgruntled owner.

**Author's Notes**

Well, no Lucas future stuff now. Figure Damion should shine a bit.

So we'll find out if our trainers will discover the disaster that occurred in Eterna.

let's thank my reviewers.

...

**Furryfur**

**PeachyKeenex088**

**Ketchum Kid** (Does this chapter answer your Tory question? Pokemorph history is more interesting than battles. lol. thanks for the review)

**Sparky**

**SynctrainerLucas**

**RWT**

**Hoshi **(eh, reviews are never too long unless you describe about your love life. XP thanks for the review.)

**Emperor Empoleon **(Ah thanks for the info you gave before. I forgot to thank you. I'm so glad the story is getting better. thanks for the review.)

**Pikana**

**Jarkes**

**Assassin42**

**gg121** (hahaha, how soon are we talking about? XP thanks for the review.)

**hydro-serpent58**

...

Well that's it from me. School is starting so if I update slow... yeah just understand how busy a person can be.

See you in the next chapter

**-JapanDreamer**


	50. Drama Everywhere

**Disclaimer: No Pokemon were hurt in the making since I don't own any...**

Okay, last chapter before school starts! Isn't that great?! Eight pages long! New record! (I think...) And it'll be the last time this will ever happen again. lol

say, I did this in my other story but I figure why not ask here. And remember I asked not demand - how did you find my story? Was it random or something?

Anyways, enjoy!

**Chapter 47:**

"Well as Gym Leader," Gardenia said though she looked thoroughly depressed, "I herby give you the Forest badge." She handed over the small three green colored diamond shaped into a triangle badge over to Damion.

"YES!" Damion yelled so loud that the whole place echoed, "The second badge is mine!" He put his fist, where the badge was held, and raised it into the air. "WHOO!" He jumped up and down and started to run around while Gardenia and Dawn, who was embarrassed, watched.

"Is he always like this?" Gardenia asked, pointing at the boy who was now jumping up and down like a cheerleader.

"Yes," Dawn stated flatly. Damion was now rushing over to Lucas. _Oh no, trouble_. Damion jumped quickly onto the seat next to Lucas who seemed to have his head strangely down for some reason.

"See this Lucas! This is the second badge!" Damion said eagerly as he waved the badge around Lucas' face, "Now do you see my abilities! I'm going to become the greatest-."

"Zzzzzzzzzzz," Lucas replied through his half opened, slightly drooling mouth. Damion stared for a few moments before it slowly dawned on him that Lucas slept through the whole battle and never saw the final moment of glory.

"LUCASSSSSSSS!" And with that Gardenia was now watching Lucas being chocked by Damion who was trying to be held back by Dawn. _This is like a sit com reality show_.

…

Cynthia sighed as she stared at the bottom of her half filled cup of tea. She could see her pale distorted reflection from the liquid. She was tired. Who knew that coming to visit a friend would lead to a break in to a secret headquarter, saving a kid who turned out to have Pokemon abilities, and now she was trying to figure out how to protect him.

She was tired but she couldn't sleep. Not now. She turned her head and saw the boy Alex fast asleep on one of the chairs. Cynthia told him to go back to bed and rest up some more, but instead, Alex just grabbed a chair next to Cynthia and fell asleep. He was curled up tightly in it since his legs were too long to dangle out. Cynthia noticed how he was shuddering and clutching onto his chest tightly as though he was in pain though no sound came out of his mouth. Once in a while, Cynthia could see a small tear sliding down the boy's cheek. Cynthia shuddered as she remembered the needles marks and large thick scars everywhere on the boy's body. Just what were they doing to this kid?

"You okay?" Cynthia looked up and saw Rad with another pot of hot steaming tea. Without asking, he tipped the ceramic earth color tea pot and more steam started to rise from Cynthia's cup. She wordlessly said thanks as Cynthia took a long slow sip. It was after she finished and placed the cup down that she spoke.

"I can't believe that you would do something so reckless like storming into that Galactic Eterna building." Rad couldn't help but chuckle as he took out his Pokeball. Cynthia knew that Rad's Clefairy was in it. Safe and sound.

"They seemed suspicious enough and my gut feeling was telling me that they stole my Clefairy. Though, I was shock that they would lock me up just because I was demanding too much. Thanks to you, I heard all the citizens managed to retrieve back their Pokemon with no trouble or incident." Cynthia gave a weak smile as she took out a piece of paper out of her pocket.

"I came over because you had something for me right?" Rad took the piece of paper and realized that it was the note he wrote to asked Cynthia to come over and pick up one of her Pokemon he borrowed and because he had a surprise.

"Wait right here," Rad said excited. He rushed out of the small room. Cynthia sighed as she remembered what just happened several, though it seemed many, hours ago.

Cynthia came into the bicycle shop to pick up her Togekiss, but to her surprise, she only found Rad's assistant, a stocky brown hair teenager with an acne problem. After the sputtering introduction, the assistant claimed that Rad went out and hadn't return since early morning. The assistant returned her Pokemon though he claimed that he doesn't know what surprise Rad was talking about. Cynthia tried his phone but there was no answer and after many asking, Cynthia realized that Rad went to the Galactic building and never came out. That was when Cynthia got suspicious and started that rescue mission which caused more trouble than she thought.

"Here it is!" Cynthia cringed. Oh no. When Rad sounded like that, it was trouble.

"It's not another crazy invention is it?" Cynthia asked weakly, remembering the last explosion she had to endure when Rad's creation burst into flames. Rad didn't answer and instead placed it in front of Cynthia.

"Ta dah! Togekiss is such a good helper in delivering items but I was shock to find this as well with it when it came back from its last delivery!" Cynthia stared surprised at what she was seeing which was basically a small cylinder container which is used to store, what is in it now, an egg. It was pure white except for the red and blue colored triangles covering it. It stood motionless and steady.

"Well, that's great!" Cynthia finally said.

"Isn't it?!" Rad said excitedly, "I was so amazed that I had trouble figuring out how to take care of it, but luckily I had the deliver it last gave was to the Day Care people and they gave full instructions on how to take care of it."

"Rad, are you taking care of it?" Cynthia asked. Rad's smile faltered for a moment as he looked shock.

"W-well," Rad sputtered and fell silent for a while, "I'm a busy man. I don't have time to take care of an egg. I was going to give it to you since you're the owner."

"Rad," Cynthia said exasperated, "I don't have time to take care of an egg. I have a kid to take care of and a case to investigate. I don't have time to care and nurture a baby when the egg hatches." Cynthia groaned. Great, another problem added to the table. However, this was the first problem that would be solved even though this was the least of Cynthia's worry, especially when she heard the news about eh building.

…

Gardenia followed the three trainers out of her gym. The Lucas boy was slightly dazed and very red around the neck. Damion had both of his cheeks slapped so hard that the hand print can be seen. Dawn looked slightly embarrassed but other than that looked exactly the same as usual, elegant and petite.

"Well it was nice meeting you Gardenia," Dawn said, bowing politely, "I hope we will see each other again." Lucas turned around and bowed as well. Damion gave a thumbs-up and said, "You can always have another rematch with me when you're ready."

"Yeah, maybe," Gardenia said weakly, making a mental note to be careful when dealing with these three. It was when Gardenia was at the doorway that she realized that the gym leader phone was ringing. "Excuse me, you guys go ahead. Perhaps we'll meet each other again." The three trainers nodded and left out to the sunny afternoon outside. Gardenia took the phone and answered.

"GARDENIA! WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?!" Gardenia cringed. It was the Pokemon Committee's head chair. Curly hair, large thick glasses, incredibly short, and always wearing a suit type of man. He packed a lot of anger inside that small body, enough to make someone as tall as Gardenia to fear him when he is angry.

"At a gym battle sir. I just finished," Gardenia said timidly, "Why?"

"There is a major disaster! Your town- No, just get over at the Eterna building. I will be there personally in a minute." With that the man hung up. Gardenia felt cold despite the warm sunlight shining through. Danger? Gardenia ran out of the door. She could immediately tell from the smoke in the distance that the chairman was not kidding. What was going on?!

…

"What is going on?" Damion asked as he watched the firefighters everywhere gather their fire hoses and water Pokemon to extinguish the smoking building.

"Perhaps a fire that started accidentally," Dawn said, shrugging her shoulders. The firefighters were almost finished so Dawn guessed that the fire started while they were at the gym. "Let's go, we're blocking them." Dawn, Damion, and the silent Lucas went to the Pokemon Center to heal Damion's Pokemon. There, a busy Nurse Joy was trying to take care of, what seemed like, thousands of Pokemon. Without asking, a Chansey took the three trainers' Pokeballs and rushed to the recovery machine that was working nonstop.

The three trainers couldn't find a place to sit so they ended up sitting against the wall next to the door that kept opening and closing as trainers kept rushing in and out. Dawn noticed Damioin glaring at the sleepy Lucas. It was obvious that Damion was thinking in his mind of how he would like to torture the guy again.

"Well congrats on your second gym badge," Dawn said, hoping to strike up a conversation, "Why don't you tell us every moment of it again?"

"Yes," Lucas said, trying to make up with Damion, as he rubbed his eyes"I would like to hear it."

"Why?" Damion scoffed, "You already know what happens and I highly doubt Lucas cares enough to stay awake to hear it." He turned his head away, leaving a hurt Lucas.

"I'm sorry," Lucas said, "I didn't mean to fall asleep." Damion didn't say anything and pulled his legs up as he rested his head against his knee. They didn't talk for the longest time that Dawn was getting uneasy by the silence.

"Dawn, why do you think Buizel didn't listen to me when we battled?" Damion asked finally, disregarding Lucas. He was obviously trying to keep Lucas out of the loop, but Dawn couldn't help but notice how Damion looked so confuse.

"It had more experience than you do," Dawn said, thinking of a good explanation, "Maybe it thought it could help you win if it did what it had to do."

"Really…" Damion scoffed, "You know the worst thing was that I would've lost if Buizel had listened to me. That Ice Punch… I didn't know it could use that… why didn't it use first? Does it think it was better than me? Maybe Buizel doesn't deserve a trainer like me…" Dawn tried to say something but couldn't think of what. Damion was really in a depressed mood which was so unlike him so Dawn didn't know what to do.

"It was testing you." Dawn turned her head in surprise at Lucas' interjection.

"What?" Damion asked, his eyebrows were raised up.

"A trainer is supposed to know his Pokemon well," Lucas said softly, "The bond between trainer and Pokemon is really important." Lucas hesitated for a moment before gathering the courage to look at Damion face to face. "You never got to know Buizel. You didn't know its attacks. You didn't know its abilities. You didn't try to get to know it. Buizel was hoping that you knew it and was waiting for you to give the command… To prove that you are a trainer… to prove to be a friend worth following." Lucas fell silent after his first long speech and Damion just stared, not saying a thing.

"Chansey!" The pink Pokemon dropped their Pokeballs into the three trainers' laps before going back to work. None of them moved. Finally, after a couple of minutes, Damion got up.

"You guys go ahead and find the next route. I need to do some training." With that Damion left without a word. Lucas and Dawn got up.

"He is still mad at me right?" Lucas said softly. Dawn shook her head and smiled.

"Thank you." Lucas turned his head and cocked it to the side, looking confused. He was shocked to see Dawn smiling so kindly and warmly. "Thank you," Dawn repeated, "For rekindling his determination." Dawn grabbed Lucas' hand. "Come on; let's find out where we need to go next."

With that Dawn dragged the confused Lucas out of the Pokemon Center.

…

"I see, so that's the kid." The man watched the video Jupiter gave to me with interest though Jupiter could tell that the boss was not impressed enough to allow the fact that the reports and documents stolen go underhand. "You do realize that this is not enough to impress me right?"

"Yes sir," Jupiter muttered, still down on one leg. The boss' room was filled with numerous of screens that seemed to sputter random codes and numbers nonstop. He was sitting in his high and mighty spindle chair, facing away from Jupiter and toward the screen that was just showing the replay of the burglary. Jupiter could only see the boss' sky blue hair sticking up from the back.

"As punishment," the man said in his gruff voice, "You are to find put this experiment at top priority. Bring the scientists who were in charge of this project and your men will work with them as well." Jupiter frowned. She'll be down in man power and that meant less important missions and more staying around the headquarters which is something she did not want to do.

"You failed completely at Eterna," the boss said as though reading Jupiter's mind, "And though I decided not to penalize you, the years of research on this new creation are gone and we're back to scratch. Which is something I do not like. Time moves forward, not backward. The same should apply to progress." Jupiter winced. The boss hated setbacks. "You'll be working with them as well. This is your punishment…" he paused for a moment to let it sink in, "and consider yourself lucky."

Jupiter knew that she should consider herself lucky but… menial third rate task work?! Those scientists are so demanding. She should know since she was working with them for almost a year in that Eterna building. Always complaining about cleanliness and exact formula physic stuff – everything Jupiter hated. Thank goodness she had an office where she didn't had to deal with it 24 hours. Now, Jupiter felt that this was actually punishment worse than torture.

"You are dismissed." Jupiter kept her head down. Now was not the time to complain. Especially not in front of the boss.

"Yes, Cyrus."

…

"Here we are, Rad Rickshaw's Cycle Shop!" Dawn exclaimed. The small building had a blue and white canopy and the windows were filled with different bicycles in many different colors.

"Do we have to be here?" Lucas asked. Dawn stared confused.

"Yeah, that guy said that the quickest way to the next town is by the bike ramps and in order to do that we need bikes."

"But…" Lucas paused as though embarrassed, "I-" The door slid open and someone came out who appeared to be very exasperated.

"Oh my gosh, Rad would you just rel-!" Cynthia paused as she saw Dawn and Lucas in front of her. "Oh hello!" Cynthia inched aside as though she was trying to hide something from behind her.

"Hello!" Dawn said smiling though had a curious look as she tried to see what Cynthia was trying to hide. Lucas stared confused, wondering if this was someone he knew. Cynthia noticed Lucas and smiled.

"Hi Lucas, remember me?" Lucas gave a weak grin and slowly shook his head before Dawn stamped on his foot.

"She's Cynthia," Dawn hissed, "Remember?" Lucas rubbed his foot, trying not to grimace from the pain. That was when Lucas remembered when he met Cynthia when having ice cream.

"Hello Miss Cynthia," Lucas said bowing politely. He noticed how whatever Cynthia was trying to hide, it was trying to peak out. That was when he saw some strange blue ears... attached to a kid.

"Well I have to go somewhere now," Cynthia smiled forcefully, "I'll be back later Rad!" With that Cynthia rushed off.

"Strange," Dawn said, "I didn't know people would still dress up? Though why was she hiding-?" Dawn turned around and found Lucas collapsed to the ground. He had the same pain look like the time in Floaroma Town. "LUCAS!" She bent down and tried to grab Lucas but… no.

Dawn's eyes turned from shock to even more shock. Was it the trick of the light? She reached for Lucas again but there was no mistake. Her hand went right through Lucas.

…

"Happy belated birthday Lucas," Justin said, coming through the wooden door, "You turned nine two weeks ago right?" Lucas was reading a book, a birthday present from Leo, about the extinct berries that used to grow on Sinnoh's ground on his bed in his room which was more like a very small hole carved out of the rocks. A single lantern hung from the middle of the room, giving a dim light on the area.

Lucas has grown a bit taller since he had arrived though not by much. His face was still round and cheerful just like the first day Justin met him. He had on blue jeans and a white shirt. On top of his head was a red beret hat, which was given to him by Yuma.

Justin handed over a worn out wooden chair that looked close to being collapsed. There was a red ribbon on it. "Sorry I couldn't give it to you earlier. I got stuck on a ten day mission and it isn't wrapped or anything..." But Lucas jumped up and hugged Justin.

"Yay! You came back!" Lucas was so happy to see Justin that Lucas didn't notice the present immediately. Justin couldn't help but give a grin. He couldn't believe it. Two months has passed and this boy was still trying to brighten up the place.

"Whoa," Justin said, easy, you're going to break my good arm. Lucas, wide eye, took the chair with excitement. "So anyways, I just wanted to give you the present before I forget… do you like it?"

"Yup," Lucas grinned. He placed the chair next to his pallet. "It goes well with the room." Justin sighed. He just got it off in one of the storages, though taking property is prohibited. He only remembered because Leo told him when he got back. Now that Justin thought about it, why did Leo know Lucas' birthday?

"Your report cameeeee!" Lucas turned around and to receive a runaway Yuma colliding him and sending him crashing to the other side of the wall. Justin just barely got hit as well. Yuma laughed in her fallen position as she waved a large envelope in the air. Yuma was still the same, wearing black ninja costume and her black eyes were wild with excitement. Her black hair grew slightly longer so that she could make a very mini ponytail.

"Yuma!" Justin yelled, "Don't knock into people like that!"

"Sorry," Yuma pouted as she got up but grinned again at the dizzy and dazed Lucas, "Your report card came!!"

"Report?!" Lucas groaned through swirly eyes, "I didn't know I was in school!" Yuma laughed humorously at Lucas' shocked face.

"Report," Justin said after seeing Yuma rolling on the ground, still laughing, "is simply to show what field you're good at. Everybody gets one after two to three months. That's why you did many simulation and tests and blood drawing." Lucas thought about the past two months and all those different rooms he had to go to.

"Oh yeahhhhh," Lucas said after a minute of thinking, "That's why I had to do so much stuff."

"Yeah," Justin said, "There are three fields – battle, research, and medical. They are the three main branches but there are different areas in each one. So that's why they had you try out each one and see which fits with you."

"Which one are you?" Lucas asked, not realizing this for the first time. Why did no one tell him?

"I'm a information gather," Justin said, "I have battle and research training to complete my field work. Leo is a battler and more like a bodyguard most of the time. Yuma is a battler though she is not ready yet to go out on missions yet since she is still training." Yuma frowned as though to say "you didn't have to say that much."

"Anyways!" Yuma interrupted as she ripped the envelope apart, "Let's see what Lucas is!" Bits of paper flew everywhere like feathers.

"Yummy!" Justin yelled, calling Yuma by her nickname, "Why are you opening it?! Lucas should be the one." But Yuma didn't listen as she continued till she had the piece of paper in her hand.

"AHA!" Yuma grinned, "As of today you are working at…!" Yuma frowned as she read the paper. Then brought it closer to her as though she couldn't see the fine print.

"What?" Lucas asked but Justin ripped the paper out of Yuma's hand and read it as well. He frowned.

"No way," Justin muttered, "That two face Nova! Is he nothing but a selfish… argh!"

"What? What?" Lucas asked scared now. Justin stared at him and Lucas could see the strong sense of anger in his eyes. Lucas remembered seeing the same kind of anger in Leo when Lucas had a bad accident with one of Leo's Pokemorph friend.

"You are moving to the Pokemorph sector," Yuma said timidly.

"What?" Lucas cocked his head, "Why is that-?" Justin didn't say anything and stormed out of the room. Lucas stared terrified at Yuma.

"I think… Nova found that you are a perfect gene acceptor…" Lucas stared at Yuma's always-happy-now-terrified face. "Nova… will make you into a Pokemorph."

**Author's Notes**

Well, that was unexpected. Not good for past Lucas or is it future Lucas....?

So we got a bit of tension and whole lot of drama in the next chapter.

Remember, I have SCHOOL! So updates will not occur fast as usual. In fact I think I'll try to write longer chapters but remember that it'll take longer.

I can't thank my reviewers now cuz I need sleep. XP So I'll do the short version.

Thank you all who reviewed and I'll see you in the next chapter.

**-JapanDreamer**


	51. The Truth

**Disclaimer: How many people will claim they own Pokemon on this fanfic? I don't own Pokemon.**

Hey there, got another chapter up. Well, it is short but that's because of school. XP

Anyways, we're heading into some serious plot line so get ready.

enjoy!

**Chapter 48:**

Lucas felt himself slipping into the darkness surrounding him. He felt his entire body slowly losing its entity and feel himself disappearing forever. He tried hard to pull out but the harder he tried the faster he seemed to forget as to why he was fighting so hard until he had a hard time to even remember his own name. Finally, Lucas gave up and felt himself being consumed… until…

_Lucas… Lucas… get up… you can't leave yet…_

Who was calling out? Lucas struggled to recall why the voice sounded so familiar. He felt sudden warmth and found himself being pulled out. The voice was helping him guide out of the darkness surrounding him.

_Lucas… Lucas… can you hear me? Come back._

Lucas woke up and found himself, once again, staring at the ceiling of a strange dark room. He groggily opened his eyes again as he tried to pull himself up into sitting position.

"Thank goodness." Lucas turned around and saw Dawn sitting next to him. She had the same look of concern like the last time he collapsed only this time, she seemed to be also confused and perhaps… anger?

"Dawn?" Lucas looked around him, completely confused, "Wh-what happened?"

"You collapsed and became unconscious," another voice said. Lucas flinched at the sound of the new voice and saw Damion leaning against the door as though making sure Lucas can't escape from there. "Luckily this Rad guy here gave you this room to sleep in until you woke up." Lucas sighed. He couldn't believe he collapsed again. Could these small events in the past trigger his memory of the destruction of the future?

"Lucas," Dawn said in a tone as though she was betrayed, "Who are you?" Lucas stared surprise at Dawn's voice. He could see a couple of small tears welling up in Dawn's eyes.  
"What do you mean? I'm Lucas," Lucas smiled his goofy grin, "I'm me." Dawn didn't grin and seemed to now look angry at the joke Lucas was making.

"Don't lie to us," Damion snapped, "Dawn told me everything so I had to come here and listen myself." He marched over and grabbed Lucas' arm and tighten his grasp as though to prove his point. "You faded away like a ghost. As far as I know, people don't do that." Lucas flinched in surprise. So it happened again. The last time that occurred was in Floaroma and that was only a slight fade in color. "Who the hell are you?" Damion demanded.

Lucas fell silent; his grin completely vanished like the flame of a candle blown out. "I see…" Lucas paused as though he knew that if he told the truth, they wouldn't believe, "But who I am is basically someone who can't be accepted in this place."

"What are you saying," Damion demanded again, "Are you some wanted criminal?"

"Damion," Dawn said, "Does he look, no, _act_ like a wanted criminal?" Damion paused and thought a bit of all the memories of Lucas. There was Lucas eating… there was Lucas eating berries… there was Lucas sleeping… there was Lucas eating again… there was Lucas sleeping some more… and…

"Well, no," Damion admitted, "But looks can be deceiving."

"I wasn't trying to deceive you," Lucas explained, "It was… more like I didn't know if I could trust anyone... you guys are really good people but… I didn't want you to get caught up in my problems…" Lucas fell silent as though waiting for the final judgment. Damion let go of Lucas' arm and sat down in a chair next to Dawn.

"Well, if you haven't noticed, we're a team," Damion said, "And your problems become our problems. We don't degrade each other about how they are caused, but how to solve them." Lucas stared in wonder at Damion's statement. But Damion didn't stop. "So… start explaining."

"Explain huh?" Lucas stared at his two friends who were both waiting as patiently as they could. Telling the whole truth or not? What is the right thing to do? "I suppose I could just start with why I am here…"

…

Rad sighed as he stared at the egg. Cynthia had to go to that committee meeting with the chairman and she basically left him in charge of it. But he didn't have time to take care of a new born much less take care of the store at the same time. Cynthia obviously made it clear that she couldn't take care of it, so who else can?

Rad stared at the closed door where the Alex kid had slept and now a new kid was sleeping in. It was very strange. The girl was screaming for help when Rad came out. He managed to put the boy in bed and was about to call for help but the girl insisted that the boy was simply tired and needed rest. However, Rad was suspecting that the girl was hiding something else. And then later, that other blonde obnoxious guy came charging in as well. All three were in the room for quite some time. Though knowing them, they're probably going to want his bicycles. After all, trainers want to get to the next city faster by using the bike ramps.

That's when it hit him. Of course! Rad grinned happily. There is always someone who can take care of the Pokemon. He turned his head back to the room. His luck was changing.

…

Gardenia panted as she climbed up the stairs. Why in the world is the emergency meeting up at the highest floor? Is there a reason that it is always like this? She finally reached the final floor and opened the large posh doors. "I'm so sorry for being late!" Gardenia said, bowing to the whole staff there. The whole room was a typical corporate meeting style. The table was oval shape that could fit about thirty people or more. There were no windows but there enough light to shine the whole area. There was a couple of deep silence as everybody tried to gather their belonging after that shocking entrance.

"Well about time," the chairman said, sighing, "Don't tell me you went up the stairs instead of the elevators again?" Gardenia flinched. She forgot that there were elevators in large skyscraper buildings like this. The chairman was a very short man with curly hair, short thick mustache, and near sighted glasses. He looked clearly impatient and didn't seem like he was going to take a joke. Gardenia looked around and noticed that she wasn't the only Gym Leader present.

"Hey there Gardenia, you should try to use your brain better," Roark grinned as he waved his hand in welcome.

"Shut up newbie," Gardenia snapped but still blushed red from embarrassment as she sat down at the chair next to the Chairman of the Pokemon Committee. "And why are you here?" Roark grinned sheepishly.

"Well, as "newbie", I don't really have much work as the others," Roark explained, "Because of the meeting's short notice, nobody else could make it. Well, we couldn't get in contact with Volkner, but he is another problem... Anyways, I came to the meeting since I had the time." Gardenia sighed. Of all people why him? He doesn't know how the committee works anyways since he had never been on one.

Gardenia looked around. Everybody else was part of the staff with the chairman. No one out of place really… except that guy.

"Anyways," the chairman said coughing for his attention, "To business. This explosion in the building is caused by what appeared to be a Pokemon battle. However, that is not the problem right now." People muttered in confusion. Usually explosion this big from a Pokemon battle is the most important issue. If this wasn't the reason why they were called here then something serious must be up. The chairman looked straight at the committee who immediately quieted down. "Ladies and gentlemen, we may have encountered an illegal organization so I suggest that we start figuring out who they are…"

…

"What's wrong?" Cynthia asked as she licked her peanut butter ice cream from her cone, "Don't you like the flavor? You never eaten one so I just sort of guess what you would like." Alex fell silent as he stared at his large chocolate ice cream. All around him there were whispers and such about his ears but Cynthia managed to quell some of it by placing a small floppy blue hat on his head.

"Why are there so many flavors?" Alex asked.

"Hmm?" Cynthia said in the middle of licking a drip of ice cream that was about to fall off.

"What's the point?" Alex asked, "There are so many choices but which one is the right one for you? In the end, you can't decide and get stuck. Or what if you don't have a what?" Cynthia suddenly realized that Alex wasn't talking about ice cream but about something else. She finished the rest of her ice cream before speaking.

"Don't you like the possibilities?" Cynthia asked rhetorically. Alex stared confused. "Sure it's confusing and all but trying each one to see which one suits you is what makes us more experienced than before. You don't have to stop and give up just because there are many roads. Take it easy and walk each one. Maybe they all lead to the same destination, maybe not. Besides, who said that you can only have one choice?" Cynthia grinned as she said this. "Isn't it possible to like every flavor?"

Alex fell silent at the idea. "That's a lot of liking," he finally said. Cynthia grinned and laughed. "But," Alex smiled softly for the first time in his life that he could remember, "I kinda like that choice."

"Everyone has a choice," Cynthia said as she looked up to the blue sky, "It depends on whether or not you make it your own."

…

"I came from the future," Lucas said. He waited for the effect of his words as Dawn and Damion tried to digest this one sentence.

"I'm sorry, what?" Dawn demanded.

"I came from the future," Lucas repeated and then elaborated, "I've somehow came here to your present day. Though how, I'm not sure." Damion and Dawn stared at each other, trying to digest the thought. They didn't know if they should laugh at the absurdity Lucas presented or what. Lucas kept talking, feeling the weight of the burden he was carrying lighten just a bit. "I came here for a reason! There is still time! We have a chance to stop-"

"Are you kidding?" Damion finally said, "Do you expect us to believe that? What kind of mess up brain do you have to expect us to believe what you have to say?"

"Please," Lucas said. He knew they wouldn't believe him but he felt the need to try still. "I'm begging you. There's something bad that is going to happen! I think that's why I came. To give you a warning!"

"Warning?" Dawn said, looking confused, "We've been living so peacefully for many decades. How can there be something bad now?"

"I…! I don't know," Lucas said exasperated, "All I know is that in the world I was living in… there is no such thing as peace." Lucas took off his vest and shirt to reveal the long thick scars on his back. Dawn and Damion flinched at the grotesque snake like bruises running down Lucas' back. Lucas grabbed his bag and took out his identification card and thrust it up to the two trainers' face. His face, his name, and of course, Lucas' date of birth.

"This card isn't lying. I really was born 14 years from now!" Lucas bowed down his head and soon drops of water from his eyes fell softly onto the sheets. "That lady from the Windworks… those people who attacked the contest… they are the ones we need to stop… Please, you have to believe me. I don't want to live in that world again." Damion gave an uneasy glance at Dawn who returned the same expression. She had never seen such a defeated looking Lucas. It was as though all of his burden and sadness had finally spilled out.

"Lucas, you have to understand," Dawn stated, "it is impossible for us to believe it right now. Isn't there… any events that you can use to prove to us?" Lucas looked up, his eyes still red.

"Mt. Coronet…" Lucas gasped through breaths, "That's when it all started… and ended…" Dawn frowned.

"The highest mountain in Sinnoh?" Dawn remembered from her knowledge of history that Mt. Coronet was the mountain range that divided Sinnoh in half. It was a well known landmark and there were many caverns in there. And there was some saying about a legendary Pokemon who created the entire region. Still why?

"Mt. Coronet?" Damion scratched his head. Even an idiot like him knew the mountain well enough. "Why there?"

"I don't know," Lucas said, "I can't remember."

"Sheesh, you're trying to convince us but you can't even prove it really," Damion sighed. His head was telling him that this was ridiculous but there was another part of him…

"We'll go investigate," Dawn said, standing up.

"What?" Damion gasped. Lucas perked up at Dawn's suggestion.

"I still don't believe you," Dawn said, staring straight at Lucas, "But you obviously want us to believe you so I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt."

"Are you serious?" Damion gaped, "That place is dangerous."

"Which is why we're going to go," Dawn said firmly as she stared at her friends, "Come on. Let's get ready to go to Mt. Coronet."

**Author's Notes**

Well, guess that's going to shake things up a bit. And I might add an OC in the next chapter.

Pokemon Special DP and Plat are finished (in terms of publishing it in the magazine) and now to the HGSS arc!Can't wait.

Anyways, can't thank you all personally due to time limit so for now, thank you all for who reviewed and now I must go and study for a test. :(

see you in the next chapter.

**-JapanDreamer**


	52. How to Stop a Bike Simple, You Don't

**Disclaimer: Don't own Pokemon**

Okay, in this chapter, I'm trying to move it along. Good news is that the chapter is long. Also I have FINALLY put an OC in here. Can you figure out who it is? lol.

Enjoy and Happy New Years for those who celebrate it.

**Chapter 49:**

"Are you kidding?!" one of the secretaries said after the chairman said that line, "Illegal organization?! That is a pretty huge accusation on Galactic Enterprise." There were several murmurs through the group but the chairman didn't respond and the secretary continued his speech. "That company started only a few years ago and is now one of the largest in this region. It provides breaking technology researches for others and it has the largest space program. Are you telling me that this company purposely blew up one of its storage facility for something illegal?"

Gardenia couldn't help but agree with this man. Since when does the chairman make such huge claim in less than 24 hours? Where is the proof? Gardenia looked across the room. Everybody else was agreeing with the man. Roark had his head propped up against his arm. He had a small frown on his face. His eyes seemed to be more concern on why is there an illegal organization rather than whether there is one. When he caught Gardenia's eye, Roark gave a sly grin and wink, causing Gardenia to quickly advert her eyes back to the chairman who didn't seem to be faze by the secretary's rude comment.

"I understand your dismay at what I said, but I didn't say anything about Galactic being involved," the chairman gave a stern glare at the secretary who immediately fell silent and embarrassed for not listening carefully. "I assure you, I have proof of an illegal organization from a very reliable source," the chairman said after he wiped his glasses with his white handkerchief. "She contacted me a while ago and notified me her findings. And I trust her judgment 100%." Gardenia perked up. The chairman rarely trusted anyone that easily. It must be someone very important for him to declare such a statement.

The room suddenly dimmed and a projection screen came down. Immediately a picture of the inside of the burned building appeared. There was nothing except ashes and several scorched up desks. However, there were some weird amount of science stuff like broken and melted test tubes and such. But the most horrifying thing in Gardenia's child like eyes, were the white bones covered in dirt.

"There are many chemicals in that building and according to our investigators; most of the chemicals are for labs and research, not for a simple storage facility." There were several mummers of skeptical remarks, but the chairman continued. "Many people over the years have reported their Pokemon stolen. Apparently, all of them have been found in the Galactic Veilstone Building. However, there are some remnants of discarded Pokemon corpses that seemed to be experimented on." Now the entire group didn't try to hide their surprise. Their eyes were wide eye and their mouths were almost hanging out.

Gardenia had her mouth wide open too. Experiments?! There was a SLAM sound and Gardenia realized that Roark and had stood up in indignation and pounded his hands against the table. Through his glasses, Roark's eyes were burning with anger as he stared at the chairman.

"Are you telling me that Pokemon were illegally tested on and NO ONE figured it out?!" Roark demanded angrily, "What kind of committee is this to just realize it now?!" Now there was a roar of anger from the rest of the group. Gardenia cringed at the hostility around her. The chairman, however, looked stonily at the committee before him.

"Gym Leader Roark!" one of the elderly ladies said in indignation, "Watch your tongue! You do not go and accuse us for not doing our job!"

"HAVE YOU?!" Roark growled angrily, not looking like he'll back down, "Pokemon had been disappearing and no one even bother to investigate it?! How would you feel if it was your Pokemon?! Or do you not care?!"

"How dare you-"

"Enough!" The chairman demanded and the whole group quieted down. The chairman waited for a moment before speaking in a firm but calm tone to the furious gym leader. "Roark, sit. You do not question or accuse about the committee's duty. You too are on this committee and these are your coworkers. Speak with respect." Roark stared angrily at the chairman before sliding back to his seat. Gardenia sighed in relief at the chairman's intervention.

"We didn't take this too seriously as we should have. There are many reports of disappearing Pokemon but they weren't all simultaneous. Therefore we didn't expect much and as a result failed to do what we should've been able to prevent. I merely want to inform you so that you can be alert of the situation," the chairman paused for a moment and stared at Gardenia, who was shock at the attention she was suddenly getting.

"Gardenia, this situation happened in your town. I need you to understand the grave possibility that the media and many townsfolk will not be pleased if the news gets out." Gardenia nodded. She needs to keep this news as discreet as possible. The chairman continued on. "As I said before, we do not know who this organization is. I will have another meeting with the other Gym Leaders about this as well. My staff will discuss what to do in our next meeting together. You are all dismissed." With that the lights came back on and the projection screen moved up. The chairman grabbed his paper and left the room through the door on the left of his side.

Immediately, everyone else started to shift in their seat as they too got up. Gardenia sighed as she put her head down on the table. What a day… She opened one of her sleepy eyes and noticed how many people were giving Roark a cold shoulder. He continued to sit in his chair, pouting like a little child. When most of the people left, Gardenia rose and followed everybody out of the large doors, leaving Roark the last person in the room. She paused for a moment, wondering if she should stay behind but decided against it.

These people here were giving a cold shoulder to her as well as though they thought that she was against them as well. Gardenia was about to retrace her steps when she realized that everybody else was going another direction. The elevators!

_Remember the elevators… _Gardenia thought as she continued to trail behind everybody else. However, by the time she got to the elevators, everybody was in it and it was already full. Gardenia had no choice but to wait for the next one. She watched the numbers above indicating which floor the elevator was on. Suddenly, someone grabbed her behind by the green cape.

"EEKKK!" Gardenia screeched as she jerked away. It was a ghost that haunted this building! Waiting for its chance to strike a lone Gym Leader who is waiting by the –

"Hey, it's me," Roark said, "Boy, you're sure a jumpy Skitty." Gardenia turned away so that Roark couldn't see her "I almost had a heart-attack" face.

"What do you want?" Gardenia asked. Roark paused for a moment before saying –

"Why aren't you taking the stairs?" Gardenia stared strangely at the question. "You always were a bumbling fool who do things without thinking. I was betting that you were going to try walking down forty stories again." Roark grinned at his joke. Gardenia pouted and turned away.

"What's your point? Why do you even care?" Gardenia asked. Roark shrugged and said, "Well, I've been on elevators too many times on my job, you know, mining and stuff. I was thinking maybe we both could take the stairs. It'll be nice to have someone to talk to." Gardenia didn't say anything and walked toward the door that led to the stairs.

"Now, where are you going?" Roark asked in a teasing voice.

"This elevator is taking too long," Gardenia defended her reason before she started to climb down the stairs. Roark followed in pursuit. Gardenia didn't like the silence, excluding the echoing noise of their feet as they thundered down the stairs, between them and had to say something.

"You know, you should try to calm down when you're in a meeting," Gardenia said, "Yelling and screaming isn't going to help. Why couldn't you act more professional?"

"What are you, my dad?" Roark asked as he sighed, "I don't need another lecture about how young and incompetent I am. Besides why do you even care?"

"Because," Gardenia said, "You represent the Gym Leaders and whatever negative images you give off reflects on the whole group."

"Oh?" Roark raised his eyebrows and grinned, "And how about you at that Gym Leader convention a couple years ago? You spent hours pulling on a door when you were supposed to push. Or how about when you tripped going _up_ the stairs? Or, this is my favorite, you screaming so loud when during the meeting, you saw a Ghastly that all the windows shattered?" He ticked the events off of his finger like a list.

"Wha?" Gardenia sputtered, turning redder by the second, "How did you -?"

"Candice and Fantina know how to gossip very well," Roark grinned. Gardenia glared and groaned. Those two really know how to talk. "Seriously, you shouldn't be talking when you do a whole bunch of embarrassing stuff too. In fact, everyone does."

"Shut up!" Gardenia said as she tried to walk away by jumping down the stair steps. But by doing so, she tripped and almost fell head first to the ground.

"Whoa!" Roark said, surprised by Gardenia's anger, "Easy!" He grabbed her by the hand to stop her. "I'm sorry. Didn't mean to make you so mad."

"Whatever," Gardenia muttered as she pushed away Roark without saying thanks. Roark hung back as Gardenia continued down the stairs. Finally, Gardenia yelled loud enough for Roark to hear. "Wait till I tell Byron about what happened today!" Roark immediately flinched, his face full of fear.

"WHAT?! NO! Wait! Don't tell him! He'll kill me!" Roark rushed after Gardenia. "Gardenia PLEASE!"

…

"Please, take care of my child." Dawn stared at Rad who was holding the egg like a proud father ready for his newborn.

"I'm sorry, can you repeat that?" Dawn said, not believing her ear. Rad realized that what he said sounded a bit wrong.

"I mean, will you take care of this egg for me? Its owner can't take care of it so I figured that I'll give it to you guys, since you have more time than a bike shop guy like me." Rad presented the container with the egg inside to Dawn's arms.

"Ummm, I don't really know anything about taking care of a Pokemon… I don't think I can take care of it," Dawn muttered, trying to push it back.

"Dawn! Check out these bikes!" Damion called out as he tried to test one of them out. He was trying out a very nice red mountain bike. "Lucas come on, try them out." Lucas shook his head and looked as though the bikes hanging from the ceiling were going to crash down.

"What's the matter Lucas?!" Damion yelled, "Why can't you act normal?!" He got off of the bike he was riding on, but tripped over it. Damion landed on the table, causing it to crack and break and spilling tea everywhere. Lucas slipped on the tea when he was trying to dodge shards from the teapot and crashed into the bookshelves where books came raining down. _Bam! Crash! Swoop! Boom!_ In the end, Rad's shop was nothing more but a huge mess. Dawn could still hear the dripping sound from the tea as it fell to the ground.

"Uhhhhh, opps?" Damion said as he looked at the mess around him. Lucas was groaning from the injury on his head when the books fell on him. Rad looked like he was going to explode with anger when Dawn, thankfully, intervene.

"I'll take the egg, three bikes, and pay for the damage if you let us off without screaming," Dawn said. Rad took a deep stressed out breath and counted to ten before he spoke in a strain but calm voice.

"Deal."

…

"You are dead," Dawn said as she pushed her new pink bike out of the shop. She had a small brown basket in the front where her egg was now placed. She was glaring at Damion who was trying to advert his eyes away from Dawn's deadly stare.

"I said I was sorry. What's the big deal?" Damion grumbled as he got on his orange bike. Lucas was hanging back watching Dawn and Damion as they got on their bikes. "Lucas," Damion said, waiting for his friend to get on his blue bike, "What are you waiting for? We need to get to the mountain fast before nightfall."

Lucas stared at the ground as though trying to figure out what to say.

"Ummmm, how do you ride this thing you call bike?"

…

"Are you serious?!" Damion groaned as he placed his head against the handlebars, "We're going to have to waste our time teaching him how to ride a bike? The future must really suck if a kid doesn't even know what a bike is." They were now on the white bike ramp course field. It slopped down all the way to the end. The course is high in the air, supported by strong steel beams. On the bottom there was a light mist, but Damion could make out the grassy field and a small river cutting through. This would only need to take ten minutes to cross but with Lucas… Too bad there is a rule saying that no walking, only bike riding in this area.

"Don't complain!" Dawn snapped, though she too felt a bit exasperated. Lucas isn't a fast learner and by the time he gets the hang of it…

"Am I doing this right?" Lucas said as he sat on the bike's seat. His feet were on their tippy toe and touched the ground to balance him. He was holding on the handle bars for his dear life. He was literally shaking from head to bike to toe.

"Great," Dawn said, trying to be encouraging, "Now take your feet off and put them on the pedals." Lucas raised his feet to touch the pedal and then BAM! He fell to the ground. Dawn groaned and both she and Damion got off their bike to help him up.

"Sorry," Lucas said. Despite the nasty fall, he gave a grin and slowly tried to get back up and try again. "I'll try again." Despite his upbeat attitude, Lucas' hands were slightly shaking. Dawn and Damion surrounded Lucas, just in case he fell again. This took about twenty times and each one ended Lucas crashing down on either Damion or Dawn. Finally, on the twentieth first time, Lucas managed to balance his bike. He looked shock but slowly grinned. "I… I did it!"

"Finally," Damion sighed in relief, "I thought I was going to be bruised to death before this happened. His entire arm had small cuts and bruises. Dawn grinned as well, panting slightly as she wiped the sweat off of her forehead.

"Okay, try to pedal slowly and we'll catch up with you," Dawn said. Lucas nodded and took a deep breath. He slowly started to pedal. Damion made sure that Lucas was out of ear shot when he turned to Dawn.

"Dawn, what do you think about Lucas' story?" Damion asked. Dawn turned to face Damion and frowned.

"I don't know. It sounds more like a story…" Dawn got on her bike, "But… Lucas doesn't seem the type that would lie at least not something this big…" Damion fell silent as he too got on his bike.

"I… really want to believe him, but at the same time… I don't know…" Damion frowned as he stared at the ramp before him.

"AH!" Dawn said, "We forgot to teach him something!"

"What is that?" Damion asked confused at the sudden change in topic.

"How to stop."

…

"LUCAS!" Damion yelled as he pedaled as fast as he can down the road, "HANG ON! PEDAL BACKWARDS!" Lucas was riding like crazy, going in zigzag formation. Lucas tried to pedal backwards but the bike didn't seem to stop and was gaining more speed as it speed down the hill. Soon Lucas lost control and was about to hit the side of the bike course and fly out. "Dawn! DO SOMETHING!"

"AIPOM!" Dawn yelled, throwing her Pokeball to Lucas. The monkey Pokemon managed to land on Lucas' back just in time before the bike crashed into the ramp. Dawn's Aipom grabbed tightly to the side of the ramp with its tail as Lucas dangled with his bike, hanging only by Aipom's arm. "Don't let go!" Dawn demanded as they both speed to Lucas, but Aipom's grip around Lucas was weakening and he slipped down to the bottom.

"Staravia!" Damion called out and the Pokemon swooped down after Lucas and his bike.

"LUCAS!" Dawn screamed as she looked over the bridge, but the mist was blocking her view as to whether or not Staravia made it. "We have to get down there." Aipom gave a sad look at its failure to hold on to Lucas. It climbed up onto Dawn's shoulder.

"I'm going to kill that kid when I find him," Damion groaned, "Come on, let's get out of here and go down and find him.

…

Lucas was falling… slowly. His chest was glowing with a soft green light and it seemed to be defying gravity for him. He had already fainted from the sudden crash. Finally, he landed softly on the large patch of grass and slept peacefully. The glowing slowly faded and soon darkness fell. The water from the river close to him was bubbling slowly along the rocks.

Slowly there was a rustling sound and a strange about two feet tall shadow pushed the grass away to find Lucas in front of it. It had a large blue green dorsal fin on its head and two large beady eyes. Its mouth was as large as its stomach and seemed to be deciding whether or not to eat the sleeping Lucas. On its red belly was a large scar going from left to right.

"Gahhhhhhh."

**Author's Notes**

Well now, this should be interesting.

A couple of people thought RoarkXGardenia is cute so I gave it a try. I don't think it worked though... poor Roark. lol.

Also, who is ready for the 5th Generation of Pokemon? As one of the older generation, lol, I think I will never catch up with the names of these thousands of Pokemon. Seriously, how many more are there? But I'm looking forward to the new Ranger game in the anime.

And of course, I can't wait for HGSS manga. Just less than one month to go.

let's thank my reviewers before I go.

...

thank you

**Pikana**

**RWT**

**Light-Sakura**

**Furryfur**

**hydro-serpent58**

**roxas24**

**gg121** (thanks for the review.)

**Hoshi** (Ah, compusha sick. I've been there. And who said anything about ending it? This is not over, not by a long shot! I mean, we haven't even gotten to any of the shipping. Oh, darn, I need to write some of that. lol. thanks for the review.)

**SsX-77**

**FirewolfJackson**

**PeachyKeenx088  
**

**Jarkes**

**JellySpoons**

...

Thanks all for reviewing and hopefully I'll be able to update faster. Thank you for your patience.

See you in the next chapter.

**-JapanDreamer**


	53. An Enemy and a New Friend

**Disclaimer: Can't own Pokemon**

Hey guys, sorry for the late update. I've been busy so couldn't really write a lot but now I can!

I have a question on the bottom which I would like you to read. It will **determine** whether or not if I will write new story/stories.

Enjoy the chapter.

**Chapter 50:**

The chairman was sitting in his chair and waiting in his Eterna City's office. He has one in every city and each office looks exactly the same. It was one large oak desk and a red swivel comfy chair. There was a large bookshelf on the side and contains many law, geography, history, and philosophy books. The carpet looked black instead of dark navy blue because the president had closed the only window and the curtains behind him. He was waiting for someone… someone very important.

There was a knock on the door. The chairman sighed with relief after he checked his clock, which was precisely six on the dot. Right on time as usual. "Come on in." The door creaked open and a pair of black heels came marching in. The guards that stood out front gave a salute before closing the door again. The chairman noticed that there was someone hiding behind his visitor but decided to ask later.

"I was hoping to see you at the meeting so you could back up with what I had to say. I assume you ask for this discreet meeting for a reason?"

"Yes chairman," Cynthia said and took a step to the side to reveal a young boy wearing a blue jacket and pants with black gloves and boots. His blue hair was covered with a large floppy hat. The chairman raised his eyebrow with confusion but simply pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose and folded his arms on his desk as he waited for Cynthia to explain. The boy stared down at the ground so that the chairman couldn't see his face.

"His name is Alex," Cynthia stated first before she continued her request, "I needed to notify the higher ups but by doing so will put this boy in danger. That's why I came to you so that you'll be aware but not do anything threatening to this boy," Cynthia explained. Her gray eyes stared sternly at the chairman. "You're the only one I can trust to do this."

The chairman sighed and scratched his curly hair. "You haven't changed since we first met. Trusting me as much as I trust you…" He remembered the day when Cynthia had first met him when she became the Sinnoh Champion. "Tell me first and let's see what we can do."

Cynthia gave a nod to Alex who slowly took off his hat. The chairman's face turned for tiredness to bemuse to shock. The ears were pointing straight up in the air. "Tha- that's… that's," the chairman sputtered and couldn't even speak correctly.

"Mr. Chairman, he was created by scientists in the Eterna Galactic Building," Cynthia said in a deadly serious tone, "We are dealing with something even worse than you thought."

…

Lucas woke up with a slight pain in his head. He could see several stars starting to shine in the night sky. He sighed and decided to go back to sleep. It was just too peaceful to get up. Maybe he could dream about that giant ice cream sundae about the size of a house again.

That's when Lucas remembered what had just happened when he was fully conscious the last time. He was… falling… and then… He sat up and looked around him. He was in what appeared to be a large tall grass area. He looked to the side and noticed one of the pillars that supported the bike ramp up above. How in the world did he survive a fall like that? And where was his bike? He looked around and didn't see it at all… until…

"Gomp! Gomp! Gupppp!" Lucas looked behind him and saw a strange looking Pokemon with a dorsal fin on its back. It was really small but apparently seemed to be enjoyed that bike, now just a pile of metal, that was two times taller than it was. It gave a satisfying burp before patting its stomach which, Lucas noticed, had a large scar on it.

Oh, no… Lucas stared at the spot where his bike once stood. Dawn was going to kill him when she saw his disappeared bike. And what kind of Pokemon could eat metal?

Lucas frantically checked his bag until he found his Pokedex which he aimed at the full Pokemon. There was a beep and information came into Lucas' Pokedex. "A Gible… good diggers and love to play, especially with their jaws… Males have a cut on their dorsal fin while females don't." Lucas looked up to see the Gible walk over curiously at the Pokedex. There was no cut so Lucas assumed that it was a female. It suddenly opened its mouth wide and lunged at the Pokedex.

"Oh, sorry," Lucas immediately held his Pokedex high in the air before the Gible could bite it, "You can't eat this. Besides you ate my bike. Aren't you full?" The Pokemon jumped several times, its arms failing but the Pokedex was still out of reach. The Gible pouted but turned away. Lucas looked curiously at the Pokemon who started to walk away to find another source of food.

Lucas sighed in relief and got up. Now to find Dawn and Damion, though, knowing what they were going to do to him when they find him and his missing bike, perhaps he should take his time a bit. That's when he noticed a large shadow behind him.

"Wha-?!"

…

Gible grumbled, wishing for more food. More food means higher chance of growing and becoming the most POWERFUL POKEMON! At least that's what it hoped to be. It pushed its way through the tall grass when suddenly it was grabbed and flown through the air. Gible struggled with the shadow that was still holding on tightly. It finally opened its mouth and bit down on the shadow's arm.

"Are you okay?" Gible looked up, its jaw still piercing the skin and saw the young boy whom bike she just ate. The boy seemed to finally realize the pain from Gible. "Owwwwwwww." Gible let go and the boy released his grasp around her. The Pokemon then realized that where it just stood was a long thick hole. It looked up and saw a large Gabite. Its curved fangs gleamed, and it stares with an evil glare at Gible. Gible froze with fear. It was the same Pokemon that gave her the scar on her belly. The Gabite grin with a – "Time to settle our last battle" – look.

Gabite sent out another Slash attack but missed again thanks to Lucas, who grabbed Gible and started running like crazy. "Don't worry," the boy said, puffing from the run, "I'll protect you." The Gible stared with wonder at the boy who was saving her. Although he didn't look much, he was obviously putting a lot of effort to help her.

The Gabite roared with anger and charged straight at the two. It didn't took much effort to catch up with its speed. However, this time Lucas was ready. "Turtwig, Muchlax, and Shinx!" The three Pokemon came out. Lucas took a deep breath and tried to remember the moves his Pokemon knew. "Get ready! Turtwig use Razor Leaf! Muchlax Tackle! Shinx use Spark!"

Turtwig sent out a storm of small leaves at the Gabite who merely blocked them with its wings. Muchlax charged straight forward lazily but of course missed due to its lack of speed. Shinx… well it grudgingly sent out a Spark attack. Lucas sighed. Shinx wasn't listening to him at all, but at least it stopped biting. Perhaps it was somewhat grateful for Lucas protecting it during its last fight…

Lucas checked his Pokedex for data on this Gabite. "Okay this guy is an evolve form of you…" Lucas addressed this to Gible, "And weaknesses are Dragon and Ice type… but I don't have any of those moves…" Lucas looked up to see Turwig and Muchlax in a pretty bad situation. Shinx was being passive and was simply watching from afar.

Gible jumped out of Lucas' arm and charged forward as well. "Wait Gible!" Lucas called out. Turtwig used Bite on Gabite's wing and Gibile used Dragon Rage head on Gabite's stomach. Suddenly Gabite roared and a huge blast of purple energy surrounded its claw before it swiped at the three Pokemon – Turtwig, Muchlax, and Gible.

"NOOO!" Lucas yelled. He dived in and grabbed the three Pokemon before anymore damage could be done to them. "Are you guys okay?" The three Pokemon didn't respond. Only Turtwig was able to give a small nudge to Lucas as though to say – Run away. Lucas turned his head just in time to see Gabite standing in front of him. The angry Pokemon sent out a Slash attack straight at Lucas' face.

"Shinxxxxx!" Immediately the dragon Pokemon got knocked away by an electric attack. Lucas gaped in amazement to see Shinx ready to fight. It stood in between Lucas and Gabite. Lucas gulped in fear.

"Shinx! Get away from here!" Lucas called out. Shinx gave a glare and immediately bit Lucas' hand. "Owwwww," Lucas whimpered. This time, Shinx let go quickly and stared at Lucas and seemed to be conveying a message – _I will repay the debt that I owe you._

...

"LUCAS! LUCAS!" Dawn yelled. Damion and she were walking down the grassy path of the place where Lucas had fallen. They were walking next to their bikes because walking would allow them not to miss anything.

"It's so dark here," Damion groaned impatiently, "Where in the world could he be?" He immediately froze when he heard a rustling in the bushes. There was a voice but it was too high pitch to be Lucas'. "Dawn, there's someone there." Dawn froze as well and soon the voice came closer and much louder.

"Aw man, that was scary… Mira is so glad that Mira managed to get out of that cave safely. Though Mira failed to catch the Pokemon she wanted… Sigh, Mira will have to try again tomorrow." Dawn frowned at what she just heard. Was this Mira… speaking in third person? Suddenly out of the tall grass appeared a small elementary girl.

The girl's long maroon pigtails went down to her knees though she had her right pigtail made into a loop. She was wearing a white puffed up sleeve shirt with a maroon ribbon around her neck. She also had maroon shorts and dress shoes to match. She also had on white stockings that went up to her pants. On her back was a yellow school bag that is usually seen with kids at school. Her face was filled with surprise at the two older trainers in front of her.

"Oh!" the girl said shocked, "Sorry. Mira didn't know there are people here." Damion looked strangely at this girl but Dawn immediately started to ask questions.

"Excuse me," Dawn said, "But have you seen a kid with a red beret on his head and a red scarf. The girl stared wide eye at the bizarre question but shook her head.

"Sorry, Mira didn't see anyone here matching that description." Dawn sighed in frustration. Damion too, but he was more of an "I can't believe this girl is calling herself in third person" sigh. "But," the girl said, "Mira knows this place well so maybe Mira can show you around so you won't get lost? You might spot your friend." Damion and Dawn stared at each other in and shrugged. Better than walking around in the dark and getting lost.

Mira walked toward to the left and pointed there. "There are a lot of places over there that your friend might be." Dawn and Damion followed their little tour guide as quickly as possible. "By the way, Mira is my name." Mira smiled and held out her hand.

"We know," Damion muttered, "You said your name like ten –" Damion was interrupted by Dawn slamming her heels onto his toe. While Damion was silently screaming with pain, Dawn introduced the two of them.

"Nice to meet you Mira," Dawn smiled, "I'm Dawn and this here is Damion." Mira stared at Dawn with a bit interest. After all, Dawn's elegant look and beautiful style would make any kid look up in awe.

"Wow! Mira is amazed! Where do you buy your clothes?" Mira asked. Dawn looked confuse at the question but quickly recovered when she realized that Mira must be the type of girl who looked up to mature girls.

"Oh, I bought this from a store in Hearthrome," Dawn smiled, "I get most of my clothes there."

"Wow!" Mira said enviously, "Mira always wanted to go there!"

"Well maybe we can get together sometime," Dawn smiled, "I know a lot of good places to get clothes." Damion stared grumpily at the two happy girls as though they were school girls giggling over some gossip stuff. This is lame and stupid. Why in the world did he have to get stuck in this situation?

Suddenly there was a loud boom and crash. Dawn, Mira, and Damion turned to their right and saw what appeared to be a large dust cloud. Faintly, Damion could hear a scream that sounded a lot like…

"LUCAS!" Dawn and Damion rushed forward toward the sound. Lucas was in danger, something that they didn't want to deal with again.

…

Lucas gasped as he tried to jump back from Gabite's Slash attack. Shinx was still trying to finish off Gabite but with Shinx's weak attacks and Gabite's speed, the odds were too great. The only good thing is that Shinx was small so most of Gabite's attacks couldn't hit, but it was only a matter of time.

"Shinx!" Lucas cried, "Move back and use Spark!" Shinx glanced at Lucas as though he was an idiot and ignored. Lucas sighed. Shinx was a lot like Damion's Buizel… never listening… though this seemed to be a more personal matter…

"Gahhhhh!" Gabite finally landed a Slash attack on Shinx who immediately flew into the air before slamming into the ground.

Shinx!" Lucas called out trying to run toward his weakened Pokemon but Gabite got in his way. Lucas immediately placed his Pokemon and the wild Gible behind him. The Pokemon scoffed at Lucas' stupid bravery was about to finish the job when suddenly something behind Lucas started to glow. Lucas turned around and saw to his surprise that it was Turtwig.

"Turt… wig?" The Pokemon started grow bigger and leaves started to grow from its shell and suddenly, it became a new Pokemon. The new Pokemon charged straight at Gabite who fell to the ground. Lucas stared at surprise and saw in his Pokedex a new entry.

"Grotle?" Lucas said the name with surprise. He looked up to see his new evolved Pokemon sending out a Razor Leaf attack while Gabite tried to shield itself. The attack was way more powerful than last time.

"Prinplup use Metal Claw!" Gabite immediately got attacked from behind and it screamed with pain. Lucas gaped in amazement at Prinplup. It was definitely Dawn's! And if it was here then that must mean…

"Lucas! Are you okay?!" Dawn yelled coming into view. Behind her were Damion and a strange little girl. Gabite growled at the new reinforcements and charged straight at Prinplup.

"Oh no you don't! Mira won't allow that!" The girl threw out her Pokeball and summoned a Kadabra, "Use Confusion!" Gabite screamed in pain at the new wave attack. It couldn't stand being hit so many times. However, it managed to still stand.

Lucas used this chance to crawled over to the weak Shinx. Lucas held Shinx in his arm and stared sadly at the unconscious Pokemon. "I'm so sorry… I'm not strong enough to lead you…"

"How strong is this Pokemon?!" Dawn cried as Prinplup sent out a Bubblebeam attack to retaliate. Lucas turned around and saw Damion with his Monferno, trying to hit with a Mach Punch.

"Ice and Dragon attacks work effectively!" Lucas called out, remembering his Pokedex's info.

"Well great!" Damion grinned. He took out another Pokeball and this time Buizel appeared. It still had a haughty look on its face but this time it was facing the enemy with confidence. "Come on Buizel! Show me what you got! Ice Punch!" Buizel charged forward with great speed and slammed its ice arm straight at Gabite's face. The Pokemon growled in a lot of pain. It can't take anymore of this. It gave one long stare at Gible's tired state before rushing away with the long grass hiding it.

"And that's how it is done!" Damion grinned. Buizel scoffed but gave a satisfy look. It even gave Monferno a high five slap.

"Lucas!" Dawn rushed over to Lucas and gave him a quick hug, "Are you okay?!" Lucas blushed softly but nodded.

"Yes, but everybody got hurt…" Lucas gave a sad look at his Shinx and at Muchlax and the Gible who was now walking toward Lucas. Apparently, the Pokemon didn't suffer too much damage as Lucas thought.

"Don't worry," Dawn gave a sad smile, "It'll be okay."

"Gahhhh!" Gible pushed Dawn away from Lucas. The Pokemon glared at Dawn as though they were rivals or something.

"What's wrong with that Pokemon?" Dawn asked, confused by its animosity.

"I don't know…" Lucas said confused, "It is a wild Pokemon… maybe it doesn't like trainers." As if to prove him wrong, Gible clutched onto Lucas' leg and continued to stare threateningly at Dawn. Both of the trainers stared at each other with confusion.

"Lucas! Your Turtwig evolved?!" Damion called out and grinned, "Congrats!" Damion gave Grotle a pat on the head and the Pokemon grinned.

"You see?" Dawn said, smiling as Grotle came over to Lucas, "Turtwig became stronger for you. Don't worry about it. Just remember that it takes time but you can make it." Lucas didn't really say much but he nodded as he returned his Pokemon. Dawn frowned. This isn't like Lucas to be so sad.

"How do you like that?!" Damion grinned as he returned his Pokemon. "I finish the final blow! And Buizel managed to listen to me now!"

"Mira is amazed at Damion's skills!" Mira said, her eyes gleaming with admiration, "Mira wants to be just as strong as you!" Damion grinned.

"Well what do you know?! You're not a really bad kid after all. Maybe you can become my apprentice."

"Mira would be most honored!"

"She's a friend of ours," Dawn said. "She helped us find you." Lucas stared with confusion before he finally understood what Dawn meant.

"Oh! So what's her name?" Dawn stared at Lucas before laughing at his question.

"What?" Lucas asked confused. Dawn smiled and shook her head.

"Nothing. It's just good to know you're okay."

…

Jupiter groaned as she lugged the boxes into the storage room. It was only less than 24 hours and she already got into a fight with one of the scientists because he was so demanding. Cyrus was so upset that he made her do grunt work as punishment. She was in one of the lower chambers. There was one ligh tbulb, hanging above that lighted the area though there was still darkness. The ceiling was leaking so there were several puddles as wide as a small pond everywhere. Jupiter was in one of the caged area where supplies and documents were stored in large boxes. Usually some Grunt needed to reorganize and take inventory.

"How's it going?" Jupiter looked up to see red hair Mars, who was staring at her in a Cherish Cat sort of grin. She was obviously down here to make fun of Jupiter. Everybody has been doing that, including Venus.

"Shut up Mars," Jupiter snapped, "You know it's not going so well." Mars held her hands up as though to back away.

"Okay, okay, sorry," Mars said, "I'm just bored because there is nothing to do. I mean, I already did my job and passed with flying colors."

"Really?" Jupiter said sarcastically, "If I recalled clearly, you got beaten by a 12 year old kid." Mars immediately blushed from embarrassment but snapped back.

"At least I didn't blow up one of our headquarters." The two commanders glared at each other angrily.

"You two! Calm down!" Mars and Jupiter turned to see that it was Saturn who said that. He looked obviously irritated and in his arms was a stack of legal work paper. "You both did mistakes so stop fighting about it."

"Really and what about you?" Jupiter retorted back, "You're not finish with your job. Isn't the boss frustrated?" Saturn pressed his lips tightly together to not fight back.

"We don't have the funds needed for me to finish the project," Saturn said, "Because someone just made us lose some of our asset by blowing things up." Jupiter glared back before slamming the storage room shut.

"I'm going to go tell the boss that I finish the job," Jupiter said.

"Actually, the boss isn't here," Saturn said. Jupiter gave a glare at Saturn's know-it-all head before leaving.

"Where did the boss go?" Mars asked. Saturn stared at Mars for a second before answering.

"He said he needed to go and enjoy some mountain scenery."

**Author's Notes**

Well, now this should be interesting. I got to write a whole lot more battles. Though I think I suck. Lol.

I introduced Mira who is from the game and Turtwig evolved! Yay! And what will happen to Alex?!

**Okay, my question that I need to ask**. I know a lot of you guys want to know more about Lucas' past but I can't put all of it in here. SO, would you like for me to write a prologue for this DP story? I'll have a poll up and depending on how many people answer will determine what I will do. Check out my profile to vote.

On to other news… HGSS manga! Whoo! So awesome! I love how they put a new twist to this arc though I wonder what they'll do with Crystal… I hope they hurry and show her.

Anyways, let's thank my reviewers before I go.

…

**Furryfur**

**RWT**

**FoxwolfJackson**

**SynctrainerLucas**

**dark5523**

**Sparky**

**Pikana**

**Light-Sakura**

**PeachyKeenx088**

**Jarkes**

**Ketchum Kid** (Well, he has never ridden on a bike before so it takes time. Thanks for the review.)

**gg121** (lol. Thanks for the review.)

….

Okay that's it from me. Updates will still be kind of slow until my break which is coming up soon.

See you in the next chapter.

**-JapanDreamer**


	54. In Danger 24 7

**Disclaimer: Own Pokemon? Naw.**

Hey guys, new update.

Oh, yeah before I go into this, I feel a need to tell you that I changed something. Because I find it troublesome, I'm going to **change** Lucas, Damion, and Dawn's age from ten to fourteen. I feel like it will be better in terms of moving the story. I'll go back and change every part in the chapters that I mention of their age so don't worry. If I missed anything, just PM me and it'll save me some of the trouble.

Enjoy!

**Chapter 51:**

"It ate your bike?" Dawn gaped in shock, pointing at the Gible who was standing close to Lucas. "You're kidding right?" Even though she said this, Dawn knew that Lucas didn't know what kidding is.

"No," Lucas said as though he wasn't worried, "It's okay though…"

"Okay?!" Damion butted into the conversation, "You do realize that you're the only one without a bike and at this rate, we're going to have to slow down for you because you let that Gible eat your bike?!" Damion pointed at the wild Pokemon who snapped angrily at Damion's statement and growled menacingly at the two trainers who are arguing against Lucas.

"This Gible won't leave Lucas alone," Damion said off topic as he watched the Pokemon hugged Lucas' legs even tighter as Lucas tried to lazily shake it off.

"It must really like Lucas," Dawn said. She bent down and tried to pet the wild Pokemon but it snapped angrily and growled fiercely. It gave a "Don't you dare touch Lucas" look. Dawn immediately felt quite irritated at this behavior.

"It must really hate you," Damion laughed before he got punched in the face by Dawn.

"Mira was looking for this rare Pokemon!" Mira gasped in amazement at Gible as Damion continued to be hit by Dawn, "Lucas is amazing to befriend wild Pokemon!"

"Oh," Lucas said surprise, "I guess so… A lot of people said I'm good at that…" Lucas shrugged. He seemed to be more concerned on something else.

"But your Pokemon are injured," Mira frowned as she looked at the Pokeballs that contained Lucas' weak Pokemon. "You know, Oregburgh is not far away from here. Why don't you get your Pokemon healed there? Mira lives there so Mira can be your guide again."

"Really?" Lucas looked relieve. "Let's go then!" Lucas bent down to see eye to eye with Gible. "Want to come with us?" Gible looked at Lucas for a moment before it gave a short burp.

"Gahhh," Gible ran off into the grassland and out of sight. Lucas was a bit surprise at the sudden attitude.

"Oh," Lucas said, "Looks like it doesn't want to come." He sounded a bit disappointed but Mira didn't seem to concern at all as she tried to gather everyone.

"Come on then!" Mira smiled, "Let's- Eh? What happened to Damion?" Damion was on the ground apparently covered in bruises.

"This is what's left of him," Dawn said in a dangerous voice. Lucas immediately recognized that look and cowered behind the slightly confused Mira.

"Wow, Mira said amazed, looking not at all scared at the sight, "Dawn is really strong."

"That's what makes her scary," Lucas replied nervously.

"All right then," Dawn said as though she just had a good workout, "Damion and I will get our bikes and… Hey, where are our bikes?" Dawn looked around and saw their bicycles have strangely disappeared. There was a sound of scraping metal and a very large burp.

"GAHAHAHAHA!" Gible's laughter rang through the night.

…

Cyrus paused a moment. He could've sworn he heard something that sounded like laughter. Must be in his head… He hasn't been outside for a while now because his job required him to be inside supervising a lot.

Cyrus' spiky sky blue hair glowed under the moonlight. He had on a gray vest with his company's 'G' symbol over his long black shirt and had black pants to match. Cyrus walked slowly and tiredly. He hasn't been getting enough sleep for the past few weeks and his eyes had bags under them to prove it. All those problems his commanders were giving him made him quite irritated. Cyrus decided to take a break and beside, taking a look at things would remind him of his mission and goal. Doing this on a night like this will be peaceful and no one will be bothering him.

Cyrus continued to walk, using the moonlight as his only source of light. His destination – Mt. Cornet.

…

"You weren't kidding about that Pokemon eating our bikes," Damion said as they walked out of the Pokemon Center and back on the road. Mira was walking straight ahead to lead the way. Both Damion and Dawn were in a bad mood at what just happened to them. The only things left from their bikes were the tires and some pieces of metals were left. "Argh! If I ever see that Pokemon again, I'm gonna…"

"Demand that Pokemon to pay for what it did to us," Dawn finished the sentence. Damion and Lucas immediately realized that Dawn was still strangely mad at Gible's performance. She was definitely not in the mood so the two trainers back off. Of course, Lucas was lagging behind either way because he was falling asleep.

"Mira will go now," the girl said as she bowed down with respect. They had just reached the crossroad. On the small sign, one indicate going to Oreburgh Town and the other was to Mt. Cornet – the trio's destination. "Mira must go home now before her parents get mad."

"Lucas, wake up!" Damion hissed, shaking Lucas so that his head flopped back and forth. Once Lucas' Pokemon were healed, Lucas immediately started to get drowsy. The sense of urgency disappeared once the danger was gone.

"Are you sure you don't want to stay for the night?" Mira asked, "Mira can send you out tomorrow."

"Thanks, but no thanks," Dawn said as Lucas yawned and tried to open his sleepy eyes, "We need to go to Mt. Cornet. We'll come back if things get bad." Dawn decided not to mention the reason to go so quickly. She glanced at Lucas who taking deep sleepy breaths. They need to confirm Lucas' story and the sooner the better.

"Mira," Damion said, suspiciously, "How old are you?" There was a pause of silence at this sudden question

"Ah," Mira said and smiled happily, "Mira is ten years old." There was a huge pause of silence as the Damion tried to digest this thought.

"ARE YOU CRAZY?!" Damion yelled, "You're traveling by yourself?!"

"Well, Mira is very careful," Mira smiled confusingly, not understanding the situation, "And as long as Mira's parents don't know, then Mira will be fine. Mira is a good kid!" With that she gave a respectful bow so low that her long hair touched the ground and then she rushed off to the road that leads to Oreghburgh. "Bye! Maybe we'll meet again!"

"T-ten years old…" Damion said, trying to process the age number into his brain.

"What's wrong?" Dawn said, "She looks responsible unlike _some _people. There is no need to be so worry." She walked down the road which leaded to Mt. Cornet. "Come on. Let's get there before it gets any darker."

…

Cyrus was standing on top of the small rocky cliff inside the vast mountain. He sighed as he breathed in the air around him. The smell was a bit dank but the air was clean and relaxing. A slight wind was blowing through. He stared below him. Even though darkness surrounded him, Cyrus memorized this place by heart. He was standing at the top of this cave but soon he'll climb higher and reach the top of this mountain.

He'll become God.

"I'm telling you! There is no such ghost here!" Cyrus immediately turned his head around. His calm face turned into irritation. Who in the world would come here so late at night and disturb his meditation? He looked down and saw three kids coming from the other tunnel that leads into this mountain.

They couldn't see Cyrus because of the darkness covering him yet he couldn't see the three trainers. He could tell that one of them must have a fire Pokemon for its tail was lighting up a small area around the three. Cyrus could see the silhouette of a girl and two boys. The girl was arguing with one of the boys while the other one seemed to be lagging behind as though he was asleep.

"What about that haunted house?!" the boy retorted back. Cyrus winced at the boy's loud voice. "There was a ghost there! Why don't we just stay somewhere till morning?!"

"We wouldn't have been in that house if SOMEONE didn't decide to charge right into the forest!" the girl argued back. Cyrus glared at the three kids. They were arguing over some petty problem and they were obviously not going to get it fixed.

Cyrus frowned as his true anger started to bubble. This is the problem with this world – emotions. Joy, rage, depression, greed, pride… Humans let their emotions control them and this world began to grow with conflict based on these emotions. These children are a product of this corrupt world and they will soon learn what pain it is to live in such a place. Still, perhaps it is best for them to be put out of their misery.

Cyrus took out two of his Pokeballs. Out popped his two Pokemon who waited patiently for their master's command. "Put them out of their misery."

…

"Okay, so now you're saying this is my fault that we're in this mountain?!" Damion complained. Lucas sighed as he continued to listen to the two bickering in front of him. At least Dawn is in a somewhat better mood – she wasn't hitting anyone. Monferno was groaning as well and had both of his hands covering his ears.

Suddenly, there was large screeching sound echoing the whole place. The pitch was so high that the three had to cover their ears. "EEEEKKKKKKKKK!" The creature cried out.

"AHHHHH!" Dawn winced. Monferno blew out an Ember attack at the shadow flying but he missed.

"Hey! What's go-" Damion didn't have a chance to ask when suddenly the whole place started to shake. "ARGHHHH!"

Dawn, Damion, and Lucas tumbled to the ground and before anyone of them could figure out what was going on, giant boulders came crashing down. "Earthquake?!" Dawn gasped as all three tried to run away.

Lucas felt himself flung into the air as the boulders slammed to the ground. Lucas took out his Pokeball and released the only Pokemon that he didn't use earlier. "Drifloon!" Immediately, the balloon Pokemon tried to use its string arms to grab Lucas so that he wouldn't fall too hard to the ground. However, the momentum was too great and Drifloon lost its grip. Lucas tumbled to the ground and immediately hit his head against something hard. Lucas could feel something wet coming down his head but he couldn't move his whole body.

Lucas' vision was swirling into blackness. Dawn… Damion… are they okay? There was a sudden a pair of gray boots in front of him. Lucas'' dazed eyes tried to focus on the shoes and he tried to cry out for help but he was losing the feel in his body.

"According to one myth, Mt. Cornet was where the Sinnoh region began…" the voice began. It was low and quiet though filled with power.

_That voice… who was it… why did it sound… familiar…? _ Lucas tried to rack his brain to remember but his mind was slipping into unconsciousness.

"A world where only time flowed and space expanded… There should have been no strife. But what became of that world?" The man's voice continued as he continued to stare at the almost dead child in front of him.

"Because the human spirit is weak and incomplete, strife has appeared... This world is being ruined by it...I find the state of things to be deplorable..." Cyrus took out his Pokeballs and returned his two Pokemon back. "For disrupting holy grounds, as God, I punish you. But perhaps I have saved you instead from this horrible world."

Cyrus looked at the rock pile in front of him. The other two were dead for sure. He turned his heel and walked away, leaving the boy for dead. Lucas tried to call out – to anyone. His vision was fading and the pair of shoes were leaving…

_Someone… anyone… stop him… he'll… destroy… _With that, Lucas fell into unconsciousness, struggling to live with his memories...

…

Lucas opened the glass door carefully. He looked inside. Yuma told him to just wait inside even if there was no one there. He was called into the PM (Pokemorph) facility just a couple of days after that letter he got. Justin and Leo were gone ever since and it was just Lucas and Yuma. According to Yuma, both of the guys were on some type of mission that will probably take several months if not a year. Lucas took a step into the medical room and carefully closed the door behind him. He noticed there was a large table with a first aid kit and many doctor equipments that Lucas didn't know the name for.

Lucas noticed that there was a smell of disinfectant in the air. There were several paintings of sceneries that seemed to be showing the green lush hills or waterfalls or meadows dotted with flowers. Lucas was amazed. Paint is expensive and drawing is considered a useless occupation to have.

"Beautiful isn't it?" Lucas spun around and noticed a young creamy skin woman, around twenty six, wearing a lab coat, walking toward him. Over her lab coat, the woman wore She had extremely long red eyelashes that curled up into one thick strand. She has thin bangs that reached to her chin and long thick hair in a thick braided ponytail that goes to the bottom. The most interesting part was that the hair turned from pink, at the top, to aqua blue. At the end of the hair spread out like a thin long blue petals with oval red color inside and when put together, the petals made a fan shape. The woman's dark brown eyes gazed mysteriously at the paintings as well. "Our Mr. Nova allowed a Pokemorph with a Smergle ability to paint those. That is apparently what this place looked like about ten or fifteen years ago." She turned to face Lucas now and smiled.

"Nice to meet you…" Lucas paused, realizing he didn't know her name.

"Aria," the woman said gracefully like a song and held out her delicate long fingers for the young boy to shake, "And you must be Lucas." Lucas nodded politely and Aria smiled. "I know that there were several… ah, complaints about you coming here, but like I said before, you're here to be my assistant, that's all."

"Oh," Lucas said. There really wasn't anything else to say anyways.

"Are you curious as to why I asked you to come to the Pokemorph facility?" Aria asked. Lucas shrugged his shoulder.

"Is it because I'm not good at anything else?" Lucas asked. Aria looked faintly surprise but shook her head as she smiled.

"No, it's because you're good at many things that I want you to help." She motioned Lucas to follow her out of the door. They walked down the tunnel that Lucas had never been to before. There were many rooms that were bolted shut. Some of the doors had thick locks and shuddered as though something was trying to get out. Lucas looked a bit scared but still kept his pace behind Aria who seemed unconcern.

During the whole trip so far, Lucas hasn't seen a single person (or Pokemorph in this case) walking down here.

"This is the Pokemorph sector," Aria explained, "Everyone here, well at least most of us, are Pokemorph and we live in our own community. Most of us don't interact with others."

"Why?" Lucas asked, "Leo does. Aren't we all friends?" Aria hid a small smile as she remembered the change in Leo the last time she saw him.

"That's because of you," Aria said, "Leo rarely talks to anyone. Most of us are very… uneasy being with those who aren't like us. We have so much in common yet so very different."  
"We?" Lucas questioned Aria's choice of word.

"I'm a Pokemorph too; can't you tell?" Aria said with a bit of an interested tone and turned around delicately like a twirling ballerina. Lucas stared but couldn't figure it out. "I'm a Milotic. Of course my abilities are lacking somewhat in terms of battle but I make it up with my healing abilities." She opened her hands and a small spiral of water started to rise from the palm. It immediately disappeared when Aria pulled her hands away.

"Wow," Lucas said amazed as he jumped over a small hole on the ground, "Is that why you're happy?"

"Happy?" Aria repeated the word with confusion.

"Leo told me before that being a PM is a curse, but I don't think that's true when you can be happy with your life," Lucas paused for a moment before he continued, "Yuma told me before that life sucks, but if we can keep on smiling with everyone then our lives are still worth living for." Lucas said this so simply that Aria couldn't help but giggle with amusement.

"You're an amusing kid," Aria said to the confused Lucas, "I'm so glad I took you in. Come now, I want you to meet your partner."

"My… partner?" Now Lucas was even more confused.

"Well, when I mean partner, I mean more like patient in a sense," Aria explained, "You see, my patient hasn't been… well sociable and I think it is best that you try to help her. I want her to realize that there is more to life than just killing." Lucas widened his eyes with surprise at Aria's calm tone and expression. "Oh don't worry," Aria added, realizing that her choice of words might scare Lucas, "she isn't that dangerous. Some of us have to be locked away because the Pokemon instincts overtake the human's. She can control hers."

With that, Aria turned at a corner and Lucas followed in pursuit. They didn't say anything else until Aria stopped at a large wooden door. "Here we are. You might want to stand to the side." Lucas didn't have time to ask why.

Aria knocked gently against the dead wood but there was no response from the inside. "It's Aria." The woman introduced herself and then opened the door. Immediately a shadow sprang forward and knocked Lucas to the ground. He found himself centimeters away from three long silver blades. Lucas suddenly realized that the blades were actually a part of the girl's hand as though the fingers transformed.

"Who the hell are you?" The young girl asked and Lucas immediately recognized the voice. He looked up and sure enough, he could see the milky eyes.

"Lucas this is your new enthusiastic partner – Assassin."

**Author's Notes**

Well that was a lot of stuff. :D

What do you think of my OC – Aria? I always wanted a Milotic so I decided to put her in.

On that note, HGSS game came out in English! I had so much fun playing with my friend's Pokewalker but sadly no game for me. OTL

Okay, my apologies but this might be my only update during this break. I realized I had way too much stuff to do and so… yeah.

Remember my poll because I need to know what you guys want.

Also, I might put another OC here soon but it just depends.

Let's thank my reviewers now

…

**RWT**

**Pikana**

**Furryfur**

**Jarkes**

**Light-Sakura**

**SsX-77**

**Ketchum Kid **(According to the Japanese tradition, talking in third person is a sign of want to act like an adult or something like that. But yeah, it's weirder in my opinion. Thanks for the review.)

**gg121 **(hahaha. Does this chapter answer your question? thanks for the review!)

…

Please review guys. I need a bit more motivation in order to continue and your reviews help me do so.

See you in the next chapter.

**-JapanDreamer**


	55. We're Still Alive

**Discliamer: To own or not to own? **

Hey guys, thanks for being so patient, but I have some bad news I need to share.

**I have decided to discontinue this story for now. I apologize but my workload has been increasing so I decided to give up. Please read my author's notes for a deeper explanation as to why.**

Enjoy the last chapter I'll post.

**Chapter 52:**

Lucas woke up to the sound of slow footsteps underneath him… underneath? He opened his eyes and found himself staring at the ground, watching a pair of feet pushing against the ground. He then realized that being carried on top of someone's back. Lucas' vision was still blurry but he could faintly see the orange and white striped shirt belonging to the guy wearing it.

"D-Damion?" Lucas groaned. Lucas could hardly see inside the dark cave but Damion seemed to be doing okay by walking slowly and using one of his hands to feel the place.

"Shut up," Damion snapped back. "You were lucky that you didn't… COUGH… didn't get killed. You have quite a bit heavy injuries though so try to save your energy. Once I find a good place to rest, you can go and start walking. " His voice was hoarse and weak though as he had been suffering the same fate as Lucas. Lucas noticed that Damion was shaking a bit in the legs as though he was heavily weakened. "You're Drifloon managed to find me and lead me to you," Damion continued as he pointed upward with one of his hand. Lucas groggily looked up to see his concern Pokemon watching over him. Its black beady eyes were almost filled with tears of relief that its trainer was okay.

"Sorry for worrying you…" Lucas said. Drifloon sighed in relief and floated closer to Lucas and gave him a pat on the head. Lucas dropped his head down again. "How about you?" Damion coughed for a while before responding.

"I was lucky Monferno was out," Damion said, "He managed to block most of the rocks but… we still had it pretty bad… I think I almost broke my legs." Damion sighed as he looked at his Pokeball with his weakened Monferno. "I need to get him to the Pokemon Center soon."

"What about Dawn?" Lucas asked. Damion fell silent and didn't say anything. Almost ten minutes past before Damion responded.

"I haven't found her…" Damion said. "I lost her in the explosion. I sent Staravia out to find her but…" Damion didn't finish and finally collapsed to the ground. Lucas fell off of Damion's back. The both of them lay against a large boulder. "I need a break…" Damion said as he checked his wounds, "I wish I had Dawn's first aid kit…" Lucas, still tired, noticed Damion's large cuts on his arms and torn up clothes that were stained with red blood. Lucas felt his head and noticed that it was caked with dried blood and a ragged bandaged. Damion must have tried to improvise to stop the blood flowing. He too was cut and bruised.

Damion breathed heavily and sweat was pouring from his head. "Give me a minute and we'll find Dawn. Staravia is still looking for her. Then we need to find the exit." He sounded determine, but it was obvious that he was pushing too hard. Lucas shook his head.

"Don't push yourself too hard," Lucas said. He turned to his Drifloon. "Drifloon, find the exit for us please." The balloon Pokemon nodded and floated away though its eyes were still filled with concern. "I'll go look for Dawn so just rest okay?" Lucas got up and almost collapsed from the swirling inside his head.

"You too," Damion said, "I can't have you collapsing and then I'll have to search for you again." He pulled Lucas back down to sit next to him. "Don't worry, about it. Once I'm feeling better, you can start walking right? I won't need to deal with the extra luggage. You sure are heavy." Damion sighed as he rubbed his shoulder.

Suddenly there was a cawing sound and both of the guys looked up to see Staravia flying toward them. It was frantically flying around as though it wanted them to follow it. "Staravia! Did you find Dawn?!" Damion yelled. The Pokemon nodded and flapped its wings to the direction where he just came from.

"Come on," Damion said getting up as quickly as he could. "Can you stand Lucas?" Lucas weakly got up and nodded. Together, the two trainers made their way slowly to where Staravia was. They had to climb over many mountains of loose rocks and progress was extremely slow. Finally they came across an extremely large pile of rocks and Staravia was circling over it.

"Dawn!" Damion yelled at the pile of rocks. At first Lucas thought that Staravia made a mistake but there was a soft groan that could be heard. It sounded a lot like Dawn's voice. "Hang in there!" Damion immediately took out his Buizel. "Come on Buizel!"

Lucas took out his Pokeballs and summoned his newly evolved Grotle and Muchlax. "Come on guys! We need to help Dawn!" With that, the two trainers and their Pokemon removed the rubble. It took a while but soon they removed enough rocks to see a shaken but perfectly okay Dawn. Apparently the rocks made some sort of outer shell and didn't collapse on her.

"Dawn!" Damion said as soon as he saw Dawn from the rubble. "Are you okay?"

Dawn was clutching tightly onto the egg container that she received from Rald, the bike shop manager. As if a miracle, the egg was not harmed during the cave in. She nodded and got up, shaking a bit. Damion pulled her out of the hole they made and she collapsed to the ground. Lucas and Damion crowded around her.

"Oh my… that was… I thought… Lucas! Damion! You're both bleeding!" Dawn gasped and immediately pulled out her first aid kit in her bag. She immediately started to mop up the two boy's wounds. "Are you guys okay?"

"Yeah," Damion grunted as he winced from the stinging pain of medicine, "Both of us are okay, but we're kind of completely worn out." Dawn continued to tend to Damion's wounds for a while before she spoke up again.

"I was lucky those rocks didn't collapse," Dawn said, "But I didn't know what to do since I was afraid of another cave in." She was now tending to Lucas' wounded head. She lightly touched Lucas' head with her fingers. The cool feeling made Lucas blushed though it was hard to see in the dim cave. "I guess we're all lucky that we made it." She wrapped fresh bandages around Lucas' head and his arms. She sighed and collected her egg container. "What now?"

"Drifloon is looking for an exit that is open," Damion said. He stifled a yawn and decided to lie down. "I'm so tired... wake me up when Drifloon comes back." With that Damion fell asleep. He was so tired that even the rocks underneath didn't bother him.

"Lucas, are you okay?" Dawn asked. Lucas flinched slightly and nodded his head.

"Yeah, I am. Why do you ask?" Lucas questioned. Dawn shrugged her shoulders.

"I don't know. We came to Mt. Coronet and this cave in happens…" Dawn sighed, "Lucas, are you sure that maybe this is the 'bad' thing that you're talking about." Lucas shook his head.

"No, it's a lot worse than this… a lot worse…" Lucas shuddered a bit as a drafty cool breeze came by. Dawn sighed as she held her egg tightly.

"We're going to need new clothes once we get out of here… Lucas… this cave in probably blocked a lot of exits. I think we should just give up for now and come back later." Dawn waited for Lucas to reply but there was no response from him.

"You better get some rest," Dawn continued as she too lay down, "We're going to need to regain our energy as soon as possible." Lucas nodded and he rested against the rock.

_The world is being ruined by it… _That man's voice kept echoing in Lucas' head. Dawn may have though that this was all over but Lucas knew better. This was just the beginning.

…

"As you can see, this situation has gotten far dire than we thought," the Pokemon chairman said as he looked at the six screens (only five of them were showing faces). The video conference was taken place late at night, long after Cynthia showed him that boy. The chairman felt like this was a necessary topic to discuss when informing the information that these five missed. "The Galactic Enterprise claims that they have nothing to do with what happened in Eterna City but that is not something we should worry about right now. We need to know if these perpetrators will strike again."

"This is bad," one of the older people in the group said. He looked like a treasure hunter with his purple spiky hair and stub beard. "I never thought that this is a serious matter. Course I apologize for my son's behavior during that meeting. I'm going to teach him a lesson the next time I see him."

"Sheesh," someone else scoffed, this time a young girl, around 17, with black hair that was braided and in long pigtail style. She had on a stylish white collared shirt that had a aqua blue ribbon at the neck. "Are you going to bury him in the ground with only his head sticking out like last time?"

"What?!" The purple man cried, "No I'm not!" But in the background, the chairman could hear the man muttering, "I'm going to bury him in the ground with his feet sticking out…"

"Say, where is Volkner anyways?" the oldest man in the video feed asked. He was bald but had a strange blue mask that divided his head into three parts – left, right, and bottom. There were also two white spiky rings that were on the left and right side of his head. He had no shirt one and his muscles bulged out like a pro wrestler.

"I heard that there was some sort of electrical failure," the other girl said, who is around 17. She had pink short hair and a bandage on the bridge of her nose. She was wearing workout clothes and looked as though she was just training. "Apparently he was bored so he started messing with the electricity… and that led to a city blackout."

"Hahaha!" the masked man and the treasure hunter looking guy said, both finding this amusing for some reason, "That is so like him." The other girl with the black hair started laughing too.

The chairman sighed. These gym leaders have really low attention span. They are serious and all but they rarely see each other so something like this is a like a college reunion all over again.

"Monsieur!" The woman with purple hair that was in four bundles like balloons coming out of her hair interrupted. She was wearing pretty fancy purple clothing and had white long gloves on her hands. She obviously had a thick French accent and tends to put in French terms in her sentences. "Does zis garcon... I mean does zis boy remember what happen?" That question brought back everybody's attention.

"I don't know Fantina. He says he doesn't know, but perhaps the shock is too great for him to remember," the chairman said. The five people waited patiently for the chairman to continue. "But that doesn't mean that we should just give up. I want everyone to be on the alert. Maylene, you live where the Galactic Headquarters are. I want you to keep an intense lookout."

"Osu!" Maylene, the pink hair girl, said (a term that is used in martial arts). "I'll do my best."

"And Waker," the chairman turned his attention to the masked man, "You live close to Sunnyshore. Pass this message to Volkner and tell him to stop being so childish and causing trouble for everyone. He is a gym leader and should act like one."

"Got it," Waker grinned. "I'm going to have fun teasing that kid."

"Fantina, I understand that there is a Contest being held in Hearthrome; I need you to increase security. After what happened in Floaroma Town, I don't want any more people experiencing the same thing."

"Don't not worrie!" Fantania said elegantly and winked cutely, "I vill supervise zee contest without fail." "Candice, I need you to increase duty in the Snowpoint Temple. Cynthia believes that something will happen there."

"Got it, chairman!" The girl with the black hair said and saluted to the camera.

"And Byron…"

"Yes?" The man with the purple hair asked.

"According to Cynthia the boy will need to learn how to control his powers. I'm sure you know someone who can help."

Byron grinned. "Well in that case, I better get the preparations done."

"Good," the chairman sighed and finished the meeting, "I want you to realize that this is serious. This might need nothing police force to work on but still be on a look out. Inform me if anything happens."

"Yes chairman!" The five gym leaders responded and with that the screens went blank. The meeting was over. The chairman sank into his chair. He wiped his glasses with his handkerchief and looked outside.

Something was coming. And it wasn't good.

…

"Commander Cyrus!" Saturn said as his boss came back into the main office. "How was your walk?" Saturn was just dropping off some paper in the room. It was large and spacious. White walls and tiles covered the place. There were several large screens where charts, numbers, and reports were spitting out nonstop.

"Fine until some kids disturbed my peace," Cyrus said as he sat down in his black chair and started working on the computers. "What is the status report? How is your project going?" Saturn paused, unable to respond to the question.

"Commander, I-"

"You had more than enough time to work on this," Cyrus said in a chilled voice, "If you're having problems with funding then just find a way to get it. If you don't finish in time then we can't proceed with the plan." Saturn pursed his lips. It was true with what Cyrus said but the amount of money he needed is way more than what simple funding can provide.

"Leave Saturn," Cyrus said, "And I want results next time."

"Yes Commander," Saturn said and left the room. Cyrus stared in front of screen. He thought about the mountain he was in. That cave in will keep people out and away from their plan. By the time they figure things out, it'll be too late for them.

…

It was morning and on the outskirt of Hearthome City there was a small looking bunny hopping along the road. It could smell the fresh dew that cling onto the grass and gazed at the pretty flowers. After being side tracked for a moment, Buneary quickly rushed down the path that lead to the outside of Hearthome City.

Although the sun was about to rise, the Buneary looked excited. It bounced down the path until it came to the end of the city. Knowing what to do, it hopped onto the sign that said "Hearthome City – Where hearts touch each other. Then it began its warm-up – stretching, twisting, and touching its toes.

Buneary took a deep breath and then began its training. Twirling, dancing, footwork, were done in quick sessions like Buneary practiced. It waved its ears around and even jumped several times and landing safely.

"Are you guys okay?" Buneary stopped its practice and noticed that there were three shadows coming closer. They all look tired and beaten up. When they came closer, Buneary noticed that it was a girl and two boys. The girl was holding some container with an egg and the two boys walking next to her. There was a Drifloon floating above the three as though guiding them down the path.

"Don't worry about us," the blond hair guy said, "We'll be fine." The other, quieter, boy nodded and seemed to be distracted. Buneary cocked its head to the side and looked confused. Since when do people start coming so early these days?

"Say," the girl said, noticing Buneary as she got closer, "A Buneary!" The girl bent down to take a closer look at the baby bunny who stared back with confusion.

"What's a Pokemon doing out here?" the blond hair kid said and then noticed the welcome sign that Buneary was sitting on top of, "A welcome committee?" Buneary felt a bit uneasy and immediately jumped off the sign and rushed back down the path that lead to Hearthrome.

"Hey wait!" the girl called out but Buneary didn't hear. The sun was rising and if it was late, there was going to be a whole bunch of trouble.

…

"It just left," Dawn sighed. She thought the Pokemon was very cute and wanted to pet it. "I wonder where it ran off to."

"Who cares," Damion sighed, "I just want to find a bed and a shower."

"First we need to heal our Pokemon… and get some new clothes," Dawn said, ignoring Damion's plan.

"What?" Damion demanded.

"You and Lucas' clothes are torn up pretty bad," Dawn said, "Plus Hearthrome is an excellent place to shop for things." Dawn said this as though she was an expert. "I've been here many times with my mom so I know the best places." She looked really excited as though the idea of shopping is tempting. "Come on!" Dawn said as she quickened her pace.

Damion groaned as he followed Dawn. Lucas paused and looked behind him. He could see the peak of Mt. Coronet in the horizon. Although, it doesn't seem threatening, Lucas has a feeling that this was not the last time that they'll visit that place.

"Lucas!" Dawn called out, "Come on!" Lucas took one last glance before following his friends.

**Author's Notes**

Okay now the reason I said I'll discontinue the story is because…

**APRIL FOOL!!!!!** HAHAHAHA. I'm kidding. I'm not going to discontinue this story yet.

How scared were you guys? XP

Okay, if you guys haven't figured out yet, but we're at Hearthome City and you know what that means? **CONTEST!**

I'm going to be working this way so **READ CAREFULLY**. Anyone who wants their OC to be in the contest must tell me through PM or review. I'll choose from there and if there are any extra spots, I'll randomly select OCs from my pile.

**So let me know ASAP.**

Let's thank my reviewers before I go.

…

**Furryfur**

**Light-Sakura**

**Ketchum Kid** (hahaha, the Gible is everywhere! Thanks for the review.)

**Unknown** (yay! It's been a while! So glad you're still reading. Thanks for reviewing.)

**Solyeuse** (Thank you for pointing out my errors. I'll try and be more careful in the future. Thank you for reviewing.)

**RWT**

**Pikana**

**Jarkes**

**gg121** (thanks for reviewing!)

**PeachyKeenx088**

…

That's it from me. I'll update again if possible so keep a lookout.

See ya!

**-JapanDreamer**


	56. A New Beginning

**Disclaimer: Can't own Pokemon**

Hey guys. I'm back. I've been avoiding the computer because of my trick from last time. Happy belated April Fools! Lol.

Anyways, I'm **SOOOOO** sorry for the late update! I have exams coming up so updates will have to be put on hold for another two to three weeks. Please be patient!

So to recap, we're now in Hearthome City and new things are going to happen.

Enjoy!

**Chapter 53:**

"Hearthome City," Dawn said amazed. No matter how many times she came here, the city always dazzled her. It was only morning, but the city was bustling with activity. Yet, at the same time, the sense of calm and nature lingered as well. Modern shops were filled with outfits, accessories, and more. Yet at the same time, there were many trees, flowers, and grass surrounding the area as though this city was trying to prove that nature and civilization can work together. There was even a park next to the…

"The Pokemon Contest Building!" Dawn said happily as she clutched her egg container closer to her. She had been here several times to watch her own mom compete. It was a large brown brick circular building. In the front was a large blue door with the Contest ribbon symbol hanging from banners everywhere. She was definitely going to go there later.

The black coal color pavement contrasted greatly with all the other towns the three trainers have been in. There were so many people everywhere, yet there wasn't a sense of rush, as though they were simply enjoying a walk.

"I love this place," Dawn sighed happily.

"Whatever," Damion said, "Where is the Gym? I'm one day behind schedule so I need to catch up."

"Can we get something to eat first?" Lucas asked, "I'm hungry."

"Apparently, I'm the only one who loves this place," Dawn grumbled, feeling the negative vibes Damion was giving off and Lucas' hungry voice. They were attracting "Let's just go to the Pokemon Center first. Then we have to go shopping."

"What for?" Damion complained with a whine in his voice, "I just want my battle."

"Do they have any good restaurants here?" Lucas asked, completely ignoring the situation. Finally, Dawn just exploded.

"LOOK you guys," Dawn snapped, "We just survived a cave in and I'm not in a good mood. So you better stop complaining and asking questions. OR ELSE!" With that Dawn marched down the street leaving two scared trainers behind.

"Why is she scary all of a sudden?" Lucas whimpered, "She was in a good mood earlier."

"I think she didn't get enough sleep last night," Damion reasoned, though he too was terrified and confused. "I guess we just keep our mouth shut and do as she says."

…

"Great, we got our Pokemon healed," Dawn said happily as she stepped out of the Pokemon Center and back into the sunlight, "Let's hurry up and get the clothes." Damion and Lucas slowly followed her as she lead them to one of the stores.

"Here?!" Damion gaped at the store Dawn stopped in front of. The store was enormous! It was like a mini department store that was three stories high. Glass windows everywhere were showing inside of the new clothing on fake models. There were high class customers inside, contemplating on the outfits and bringing out wads of cash to pay. Damion didn't even need to look at the price tag to know that there was no way he could afford it.

"Wow, it's so big," Lucas said as he stared up. He seemed to be mesmerized by the large building.

"First floor is clothing, second floor is for contest attire, third floor is a food court," Dawn explained as she pointed to each floor. "We can get something to eat after this."

"Yay!" Lucas said like a kindergarten that was just told that he was getting a cookie for being a good boy. Meanwhile, Damion was still shock.

"We can't afford this!" Damion sputtered, "Even if I sell my house, I couldn't afford one shoe!" Dawn gave a strange look at Damion as though he just said he just came from the moon.

"Did you forget? My family owns this store. This is a birthday present to me." With that Dawn walked into the store. Immediately, all of the assistants there swooped up and crowded around Dawn. They were all talking excitedly.

"Oh yeah, I forgot she was rich," Damion groaned.

"Really?" Lucas said puzzled, "I thought the sign would've given it away." Damion looked up to see the large words written in cursive script that said – Berliztiful Dawn Shop.

"Seriously," Lucas cocked his head, "you didn't notice?"

"Don't make me hurt you," Damion said threatening and Lucas immediately jumped and ran into the shop.

….

Keira looked around frantically in the main area. She had the look of a fashion model. She has mid length brown wavy hair that curled up at her shoulder. A yellow headband was on her head that matches the color of her long raincoat that went to her thighs. She had on a white tank top and a black miniskirt. Her brown high heel sandals scurried around, while trying to avoid crashing into others. Her emerald eyes looked around wildly.

Keira looked behind potted plants and trashcans even though people were giving odd looks. The Contest was going to go through a rehearsal for the big day tomorrow and many people were a bit uneasy due to the event in Floaroma Town.

_Why did it have to run off again?_ Keria thought as she looked behind the counter that registers coordinators.

"Kezriaaaaa!" Keria looked around at the sound of her name and noticed a familiar face walking into the main hall. The large purple dress and the fancy attire brought a lot of attention to the people around. That woman loved to make a grand appearance.

"Fantina," Keira smiled, "How are you?" She had been friends with Fantina every since the woman became fantastically interested in Contest when she came here to be the Gym Leader. For the first time in history, Fantina became the first woman to participate in both a Pokemon coordinator and Gym Leader.

"Great," Fantina smiled cutely as though waiting for the cameras to start flashing. She then hugged Keira. "Vou look vunderful! Magnifique!" Fantina snapped when she said the French word. "But!" Fantina added dramatically. "Vou look sad as such a beauziful day. Vhy is that?"

"My baby Buneary," Keira frowned unhappily, "It ran off again and I can't find it."

"Oh no!" Fantina gasped dramatically as though this was some sort of soap opera. "Zis is terrible!"

"Don't worry about it," Keira said, trying to calm Fantina down before she fainted again, "I'm sure Buneary will turn up again like before. But we need to get to more important matters."

"Ah, zis Contest will do fine!" Fantina grinned again. "I've made sure extra security is here to deal with any probleme! Zos bad guys will not ruin something I love! I vill personally zestroy them!" She showed her fist in determination.

"I know that," Keira smiled uneasily at Fantina's strong enthusiasm, "The Hearthome Gym Leader will not fail us, but still extra precaution wouldn't hurt."

"But of course," Fantina said, "Now, don't worry about the Contest and take care of finding Buneary! Such a baby Pokemon shouldn't be wandering alone."

"Miiii!" A little baby high pitch voice cried out.

Keira and Fantina turned to see a little Buneary hopping toward Keira before jumping into its trainer's arms. "Buneary!"

"My, my, Keira, you haven't changed a bit!" Another voice appeared, "So this is the baby Buneary you've been telling me about! And Fantina! It has been a while." Keira and Fantina turned around to see who it was that spoke and recognized another familiar face.

"You're-!"

…

Dawn inspected herself in the mirror in front of her. Business is going great as usual. The polished wooden floor was waxed thoroughly enough that it made it shinny and slippery. Potted plants were placed next to racks of colorful clothing. There was a section for professional and another for casual. And that was also split into male and female sections. The room was brightly lit from the lights on the ceiling as though the sunlight was brought into the room. Each shopper has their own personal assistant helping them with clothes. The good service and the wonderful style of fashion brought numerous wealthy customers.

"So this is perfect clothing for the winter!" The female assistant, with brown hair that was wrapped in a bun, continued to Dawn who was trying out her new outfit. "The weather this year has gotten colder than usual so it is best to wear something warm. The latest and one of a kind design!" Dawn was wearing a long sleeve red jacket that went down to her knees like a dress. She had pink rain boots and white socks that both went up to her knees. She changed her hair clipping from yellow to pink. Around her neck was a large white scarf tied in a knot, and she wore the same hat as before.

"Also, there is a white bag that goes with it!" the assistant continued as she passed the bag that looked very similar to Dawn's old one though the only difference is the color.

"This is perfect," Dawn said as she twirled around in front of the large mirror. "I'll take this."

"Wonderful!" The assistant cried happily as though she passed the test. "Are you buying a new outfit for the contest?"

"Contest?!" Dawn gasped.

"Yes, Miss Berlitz," the assistant said, happy to bring in new information, "There is a Contest tomorrow and I know you are participating in them."

"I didn't know that!" Dawn said surprised. She needed to hurry and sign up or else she'll lose her chance! "I've have to get over there and register."

"Well, don't worry. The boys are almost done as well so why don't you wait in front while we take care of it." Dawn slung the bag on her shoulder and sat in one of the comfy black chairs in front where shoppers can take a break or wait for assistance. She took out her egg from her bag and inspected it. Even though it wasn't going to hatch after only a few days, Dawn couldn't help but feel a bit impatient. She really wanted to know what was inside.

After a few moments, two ladies brought out the two very embarrassed trainers. "Miss Berlitz, the two gentlemen have finished." Damion looked exactly the same only this time his short sleeve orange and white shirt now became long sleeve with the collar flipped up.

"Damion, you look exactly the same," Dawn said annoyed. "The only difference is that your shirt is now a long sleeve."

"Well," Damion said objectively, "I don't need new clothes really. The lady insisted that I get long sleeves so I did just to get her to stop pestering me. If you want different, look at Lucas."

Lucas peered from behind Damion. "D-Dawn, you don't have to do this for us," Lucas said embarrassed. He was acting very shy and tried to hide again.

"Oh come on!" Damion said, dragging Lucas out "Don't be shy! That outfit looks good on you." Lucas still had his red beret but his entire attire changed. He had a blue jacket that revealed a red long sleeve turtleneck inside. He had on long black slacks and gray tennis shoes. Like Dawn, Lucas had a white scarf tied in a knot around his neck. His backpack even changed to a white color.

"Wow, Lucas!" Dawn said amazed, "You look so different!"

"Re-really?" Lucas asked, embarrassed.

"Yeah," Dawn smiled, "You look a bit more sophisticated." Lucas turned bright red but Dawn didn't notice for she was addressing the employers. "Put this on the tab and thank you so much for helping out."

"We hope to see you again Miss Bertliz!" All the assistants said, bowing respectfully. With that Dawn pushed the two guys out of the shop.

"Hey!" Damion objected, "What about food?!"

"We have to hurry! There will be a contest here!" Dawn said.

"Wha?!" Lucas cried unhappily, "But I'm so hungry!"

"I'm buying the food so don't object!" Dawn yelled. "Unless you want to buy it!"

"No," Damion and Lucas said defeated. Damion looked up and noticed the gym right next to the Pokemon Contest. He immediately ran to the door of the gym before Dawn could say anything. The temptation was too hard to resist.

"Damion!" Dawn called out but Damion didn't listen. He was trying to pull on the door but it didn't budge.

"What is wrong with this door?!" Damion yelled as he continued to pull.

"I think it is locked," Lucas said happily.

"Thank you Mr. Obvious!" Damion snapped and Lucas immediately hid behind Dawn. Dawn came up to the door as well and tried the door knob. Damion was right, it was locked.

"The Gym is closed today and tomorrow," Dawn said, "Apparently the gym leader is helping out at the contest."

"How do you know?" Damion asked suspiciously.

"The sign said so," Dawn said. Damion looked and sure enough there was a giant sign saying that the gym leader would be helping out at the contest and battles will be postpone until the contest was over."

"Seriously," Dawn said, "you didn't notice?"

…

"Watcha doing?" Mars asked coming into Saturn's office. Saturn had his back turned and was facing the large screen against the wall. He was looking at the numbers and was typing as though to find some answer. Mars was about to cross the white line on the floor that Saturn made specifically for Mars when he said, "Take another step and you're dead." Mars immediately stopped just centimeters away from the white line.

"Sorry," Mars said, though she didn't really mean it, moving back, "you don't have to be such a grumpy commander." Saturn didn't say anything and continued to look at the computer screen in front of him. Mars looked around and noticed the window showing another room. In that room there are many machine arms that appeared to be working on a large metal circular object.

"Still working on that." Saturn said, "And I'll be glad if you stop pestering me about it."

"But we all did our fair share," Mars frowned, "We're all waiting for you to finish your part." That sentence made Saturn furious.

"Leave me alone!" Saturn snapped. "Don't you have anything better to do?"

"Hmmm, nope!" Mars said smiling. She watched the machine continue to put the metal pieces together. "You know, I'm here to give you an idea to get this plan finish. I was researching on this girl I battled back in Valley Windworks and I stumbled across on something nice." Saturn didn't respond and didn't seem to care causing Mars to be ticked off. She grabbed the manila folder tied by rubber bands that she was holding and threw it at Saturn's head.

"Pay attention to what I have to say!" Mars demanded.

"HEY!" Saturn yelled but Mars quickly skipped to the door.

"Check it out okay?!" Mars smiled before she closed the door. Saturn frowned and rubbed his head from the impact but picked up the folder and removed the rubber bands to see what Mars had brought him.

Inside it seemed to be a portfolio of a person – a young female around fourteen years old with black hair. As he continued to read the personal information, Saturn was still frowning but there was a glimmer of hope inside of him. Kidnapping a rich person is one of the quickest methods to get the money but the chances of success are low. Still, he was willing to gamble.

He grabbed the phone and waited for the other line to respond. "This is Commander Saturn. I want every personal available to search for someone in particular. I'll give you the details once you get ready." With that he took another glance at the picture.

She was the golden ticket to their success.

**Author's Notes**

This should be interesting. The contest will still take a while to show up.

And I'm learning French as well! At least a little bit. Lol.

Anyways, remember **POKEMON CONTEST coming up**! Please let me know if you want your OC to appear here. I can't remember everyone's so please let me know and it'll help me a great deal.

Let's thank my reviewers before I go.

…  
Thank you

**Ketchum Kid **(thanks for reviewing.)

**pika09**

**SynctrainerLucas**

**Pikana**

**Furryfur**

**SsX-77**

**Light-Sakura**

**Solyeuse** (Thanks for the nitpicking. I'll try to improve more when I have the luxury to do so. Thanks for the review.)

**RWT **

**gg121** (thanks for the review!)

**Hoshi **(OMG. Your comment made me laugh for a bit. :D Remember to review or else I really will discontinue. Thanks for reviewing.)

**Drumsrock18**

**Unknown **(Yes, we authors tend to do things that will bring the most terrifying experience. Thanks for the review. XP)

**Purplemew123**

**Jarkes**

…

Well that's it from me!

See you a bit later and remember that updates are put on hold for a while.

**-JapanDreamer**


	57. Old Friends Make New Friends

**Disclaimer: No Pokemon is owned**

Hey guys! I finish my finals! I'm back in the writing business though this chapter is kind of lagging since this is a bit of an introduction of new characters together.

Enjoy!

**Chapter 54:**

"This is the Pokemon Contest area?" Damion said in a surprised voice as he looked at the giant dome in front of him. Large banners showed the Contest's logo and there was a sense of superiority compared to the contest in Floaroma Town.

"Yes," Dawn said, reciting the Hearthome City's guidebook by heart," Hearthome City is where the main Pokemon Contest is. The other contests held in other towns are created because of the increasing amount of coordinators. A contest in Hearthrome is rare and many coordinators will come. The finals are also held here where the top Pokemon coordinators who have obtained five ribbons will be able to compete." She memorized this since she decided to be a coordinator. The idea of winning that golden trophy is one of her biggest dreams.

Damion's and Lucas' eyes were glazed over at Dawn's lecture of the Contests. Of course, Dawn didn't notice because she was too excited to enter the dome for the first time, not as a spectator, but as a coordinator.

"Come on guys!" Dawn yelled, trying to pull the two guys in. "Let's go in so I can register. There is so much you can check out."

"Don't you mean for YOU to check out?" Damion grumbled as he let himself get dragged past the glass doors.

…

"Johanna," Keira said amazed as she patted her Buneary's head, "What are you doing here?" She looked at one of her dear friends who walked toward her. Johanna had dark thick short black hair that was shaped into a perfect bun. She had a red clip on her left side of her hair. She wore a white elbow length shirt and knee length blue denim pants. Slung on her shoulder was a traveling bag that was budging with items. Johanna took off her black sunglasses, revealing gray eyes, looked up, and smiled.

"Well, now," Johanna replied with a teasing look on her face, "Can't I come and visit old friends?"

"Zohannn!" Fantina cried happily and hugged her friend who was definitely quite shorter than the gym leader. "Je suis tellement heureux! I'm so happy! Now the trios musketeers are back!" Johanna gave an uneasy laugh at Fantina's strong hug.

Johanna and Keira use to be rival coordinators back in the day. Now, they have retired but still work with the contests. Johanna is one of the top members in the Pokemon Contest committee. Keira became one of the top judges for Hearthome City. Fantina later came when she decided to become a gym leader and fell in love with the contests. She soon became close friends with Keira and Johanna. They still keep in touch and visit when possible.

"I'm so happy too," Johanna said and Fantina let go of her. Johanna then turned her attention to Keria. "I noticed your Buneary getting lost in the crowd. Thank goodness I remembered your letter about your baby Buneary who always runs away." Keira blushed in embarrassment while Buneary, now fully recharged with hugs, tried to squirm out of her trainer's grasp to go back running.

"Yes," Keira said, holding on to Buneary tighter, "I'm planning on training it. Buneary wants to go on an adventure but with my job, I can't…"

"Zenough of zis negative conversation," Fantina said clapping her hands gracefully. "Johanna, I'm so glad to zee you again! Zou must have some thé and zhat!" Fantina was so excited that her accent was popping out but Johanna and Keira understood that Fantina wanted to have some tea ready.

"We can do that later. I need to finish my work first," Johanna said. She then looked a bit serious and turned to Keira. "I've heard what happened in Floaroma Town. Are you sure we'll be okay here?"

"Do not worzzy!" Fantina interrupted before Keira could say anything, "We have ze security on tight zhip!"

At that precise moment the glass doors opened again and three trainers came in. The girl was carrying a container with an egg inside while the other two boys were dragging behind. "Can we hurry up?" one of the guys with blond hair said, "I want that gym battle ASAP. So let's hurry up and register so we can go."

"What zis?" Fantina exclaimed as she eavesdrop into the trio's conversation. "Battile? A défi?" She immediately zoomed over to the trainers like a giant balloon. The three trainers flinched in surprise and the two guys immediately hid behind the puzzled girl. "Young man! Did you say you want to challenge the gym leader?"

"Honestly," Keira said shaking her head, "She really doesn't know that she shouldn't butt into people's conversations." Johanna didn't respond and instead stared at the young girl who resembled her so much.

"Dawn?" Johanna said in a surprised tone, "Is that you?" The girl looked up, startled to hear her name, and turned to see Johanna.

"Mom?" the girl gasped and immediately ran to give Johanna a hug. There were small tears clinging to both of the two's eyes.

"Dawn?" Keira and Fantina gaped in amazement. Keira hasn't seen Dawn since the little girl was three, and Fantina had heard about the girl from conversations.

"Mom?" Damion and Lucas said at the same time, equally shock as Keira and Fantina.

"Vell!" Fantina said, breaking the silence, "It looks like a family reunion!" The purple hair woman looked even more excited than before.

"What are you doing here?" Dawn gaped.

"Well, now," Johanna said smiling, "I came here to help out at the Contest. I've received a letter from your father and how you started your journey. Oh, how I wish I was there with you. I'm so sorry honey." Johanna gave Dawn another hug.

"Its okay mom," Dawn said, now a bit embarrassed at the scene they were making. Lucas, Damion, Fantina, and Keira were all watching with amusement. "I'm just glad to see you again."

"We have quite a bit to catch up then," Johanna smiled, letting go of her hug, "I see you're becoming a fine lady and you're wearing new clothes." Johanna looked up and noticed the two boys that Dawn was with. She immediately recognized the blond hair boy.

"Damion!" Johanna said coming over, "It has been a while." Damion looked up a bit startled but grinned as well.

"Nice to meet you again Mrs. Berlitz." Johanna looked over to see a boy she never met before and who immediately stared back, a little bit scared.

"And you are?" Johanna asked. Lucas gave a polite bow and said, "I'm Lucas."

"Lucas…" Johanna said as she observed the boy, "Well, it's nice to meet you. Are you from Twinleaf Town as well?" Lucas flinched and looked horrified at the question and quickly shook his head. Johanna looked confused at Lucas' expression but couldn't think much about it because Fantina jumped in. She obviously didn't want to be left out of introductions.

"Nice to meet you Dawn, Damion, and Lucas," Fantina said gracefully and immediately a spotlight shined above her at the snap of her fingers, "I am ze tres fanatastique Fantina – gym leader of Hearthome and Coordinator!" There was an echo at the end of her speech and suddenly colorful confetti started to fall down around her.

Johanna and Keira groaned at Fantina's obviously flashy introduction. That girl never changed. Dawn and Damion stared back with their mouths hanging open at Fantina. Lucas was the only one who looked amazed.

"How did you get a spotlight to shine on top of you?" Lucas asked in wonder. His eyes were wide with amazement at the light. Fantina laughed and winked cutely.

"When zou are a gym leader, zou can create anything!" Lucas mouthed the word 'wow' and clapped his hands in amazement. "Merci! Merci!" Fantina said as she curtseyed in front of her one-man audience.

"Fantina, there is no need to go that far," Keira said, slapping her hand to her face in embarassment. The baby Buneary in her hand finally jumped out and landed on the floor. "Ah! Buneary! Come back here!" Keira scolded but the Pokemon once again hopped to the door… until it was caught by Dawn.

"Gotcha!" Dawn said. She then realize that this was the Buneary from earlier, "Hey you're that Buneary I saw earlier!" The little bunny pouted and tried to tickle Dawn's chin with its fluffy ears. "Ssstop that!" Dawn giggled, trying to move away from the ears.

"Thank you," Keira sighed in relief as she took Buneary from Dawn, "This little naughty Pokemon always gets into trouble." Keira looked at Dawn and smiled, "It's been a while Dawn. Remember me? Keira?"

"Oh!" Dawn said amazed, "You're one of my mom's friends. Nice to meet you." Both shook hands while Keira tried to hold on tightly to Buneary so it wouldn't escape again.

"Dawn," Johanna interrupted, "we need to have a chat. Why don't we go out for something to eat and we'll come back here later. Fantina can you take care of these boys?"

"But of course!" Fantina grinned and immediately confetti started to fall again. Johanna raised her eyebrows at Fantina but didn't say anything.

"Come on Dawn," Johanna said, "Let's go out and have a mother-daughter lunch together." Together the two left and Dawn waved good bye.

"Sorry guys, looks like you have to buy your own lunch."

"What?" Damion said with his mouth opened from shock, "But I'm hungry." Lucas' stomach immediately grumbled pretty loud and the boy immediately sank to the ground.

"Don't worry guys," Keira said a little shock at Lucas' hunger. "We have food. In fact, why don't we make some for your Pokemon too?" Damion and Lucas looked up with a "huh?" look on their face.

"Oh!" Fantina gasped happily, "Ve shall make Poffins! Come on and check it out!" She dragged the two boys down the hall and into a large cafeteria room where pots were simmering and berries were ripe and sitting on shelves. Keira followed behind with Buneary.

"FOOD!" Damion cried and started to reach for the berries. Lucas drooled as he reached for one as well.

"Stop!" Fantina ordered, grabbing Damion and Lucas by the neck, "Zos aren't for you! We shall created Poffins for your Pokemon!"

"You didn't have to choke me and I thought we're eating first," Damion grumbled as he rubbed his neck. Fantina grabbed aprons hanging from the rack and handed one to Lucas, Damion, and Keira. Keira brought the small Poffin bowls and spoons.

"Poffins are made by careful stirring," Keira said as she tied the apron around her, "You don't want to burn it so you need to stir quickly. Still you can't stir too quickly or else it'll overflow. Each type of berry will help your Pokemon's condition in Beauty, Cool, Smart, Cute, or Tough." Buneary, seeing that this looked fun, hopped to one of the top shelf and started to throw down berries into large plates.

"This looks fun," Lucas said eagerly as he got a huge plate of Figy berries. He grinned his goofy grin as he tried to balance the plate carefully though he tend to wobble a bit.

"This is stupid," Damion said, glaring at Lucas' happy face. Fantina punched Damion on the face angrily even though the gym leader's face was still smiling.

"Zon't complain. Now, let's ze cook!"

…

"So you guys have been traveling quite a bit. I see you have a new responsibility with that egg and two Pokemon," Johanna said as she sipped her tea. Dawn and her mother were outside of a nice French restaurant. "Though I am a bit surprise that you were okay from that Floaroma Town Contest. I guess it was luck that you weren't in that building." Johanna petted Prinplup and Aipom who were out of their Pokeballs to be shown.

Dawn smiled weakly though she felt a bit guilty for lying, saying that she was outside when that incident happened. She didn't want her parents to worry so much and they usually don't question a lot since they trust her.

"Anyways, who is that other boy with Damion?" Johanna asked. Dawn shrugged before she said anything.

"Lucas is a… friend I met. We decided to travel when we met at Professor Rowan's place," Dawn replied. It seemed like a reasonable explanation but Johanna still stared suspiciously before shaking her head.

"Well, there is something about him that seems off," Johanna explained. "I feel like he is hiding something." Dawn suddenly flashed back when Lucas was claiming that he was from the future. _"You have to believe me!"_ Right now, Dawn didn't know whether or not to believe such a tall tale.

"Dawn?" Johanna asked, jolting Dawn back to reality, "Is something wrong?" Dawn shook her head. Johanna sighed but didn't pursue the matter. "Anyways, I want to call you out on a more personal problem. That incident in Floaroma Town, I think it is best that you don't participate in contests for a while."

"What?" Dawn gasped, "But this is my dream! You can't ask me to just stop!"

"I know," Johanna explained, "But personally, I would feel safer if you stayed at home. However, I know you and I feel like you shouldn't do these contests. I have a feeling something bad might happen again."

"That time was just bad luck," Dawn tried to defend; "There is more security in this contest right? This is why you're here too right? To make sure that doesn't happen again." Johanna sighed but nodded.

"Very well," Dawn's mother said, "I feel uneasy but if I'm there, I'll feel more at ease." She took another sip of her tea from the china cup before placing it back on top of the saucer. "Anyways, have you heard about the new rules that they put in the contest?"

"New rules?" Dawn gaped in surprise.

"Yes," Johanna said smiling at her daughter's surprise, "We figure that the contest was too long and tedious. We decided to take it to only two rounds."

"Oh no!" Dawn gasped, "This is bad. New rules? What do I do? What do I do?" Prinplup and Aipom looked at each other with troubled look on their faces. They haven't seen their trainer this worked up since the last contest.

"Don't worry," Johanna laughed, "I'll help you out. We'll get you ready for the contest in no time."

…

Commander Mars searched the data base five times and still the information wasn't there. There was no such boy that lived in the Sinnoh region. Mars frowned again before she finally slammed her fist against the keyboard which caused a huge beeping sound. Mars turned around in her swivel chair and got up. Something was wrong.

Even though it was difficult, Mars managed to gather data of both the blond hair boy and the black hair girl that she encountered at the Windworks. However, there was nothing on this black hair boy at all. It was as though he never existed. Mars paused a moment and thought a bit. She then sat back into her chair and expanded her search outward to other regions – Hoenn, Johto, and Kanto. Mars then skillfully hacked into the city's records and then used the face to face recognition database. It took quite a long time that Mars fell asleep for almost an hour before her computer finally got a hit in the Johto region. She opened the file and was so shock as though a tidal wave hit her.

"No way," Mars whispered as she read the information and checked the name. She scroll down and still couldn't believe her eyes. This guy wasn't the same person she met but the resemblance was strong. Too strong… Mars got up from her chair and printed the information.

It'll be a while before Saturn will finish his part of the job and they can initiate the plan, so why not have a fun trip first?

**Author's Notes**

Well, now we got twice the trouble.

Before anyone says it in their review, YES my French is terrible! When you have limited resources, it is very hard to figure out what to write. So for now, Fantina will be speaking in broken French words and lots of 'z's'.

Oh yeah, random thing, I was playing my old Pokemon Ranger game. And every time I gained a new rank, confetti comes out of nowhere and I thought "Where did that come from?" lol. (Which also explains Fantina's entrance.)

Hey guys, the new Black and White starters and trainers showed up! What do you guys think? Personally, I feel like this is getting old and they should stop making new generations. I mean the starters don't even compare to the old ones.

Anyways, SEMI-BIG news. I came up with a new story (Yay me!). It'll be a series and I'll have chapter one posted up sometime before I update this story. I've noticed that the Pokemon Ranger and Colosseum haven't been getting a lot of attention so I combined a story with both in it. Don't worry; this new story is not going to be my first priority. It'll be like a 'write when I have inspiration and see if people like it' kind of update.

Let's thank my reviewers before I go.

…

**dark5523**

**Furryfur**

**Assassin42**

**Pikana**

**RWT**

**pika09**

**Jarkes**

**PeachyKneex088**

**Ketchum Kid** (lol. Thanks for the review!)

**Light-Sakura**

**gg121 **(Trust me, glasses don't work at all most of the time. People are still oblivious of things. XP thanks for the review.)**  
**

**Solyeuse** (Hey there and thanks for your help! :D I have the option to go back and fix my errors but the problem is that I usually don't have the time. I'll work harder on grammar and hopefully I can make improvements. :D If you want me to be less formal then I guess you could review with a bit of light humor? Makes me know if you want to be taken seriously or not. Thanks for the review!)

**Unknown** (hahaha, thanks for the encouragement and the review. :D)

…

All right that's it from me! Remember the contest is coming up so get ready!

Chapters will now be random and depending on the mood I'm in.

See you in the next chapter. :D

**-JapanDreamer**


	58. The New Rules

**Disclaimer: Pokemon own not do I. **

Okay, the next chapter is here! I decided that since I'm changing the rules, I'll use this chapter to explain a bit for those who would want to submit OC's and appeals.

The contest will take a while since I'm kind of busy. I also have some important news as well so check out my author's notes later.

Anyways, enjoy!

**Chapter 55:**

In Canclave City, the Gym Leader, Byron, was standing at the port side and staring out at the east of the water. He was waiting for an important guest that the Chairman had said would come today. Byron was one of the oldest gym leaders here. His spiky purple hair and his stubble beard were messy since he never cleaned up after himself. Well, he had been digging a lot as his hobby so it's no wonder that white sleeveless shirt underneath his brown cape was spotted with dirt that somehow was missed in the washing machine. His brown baggy pants were torn at the bottom. Byron's messy white gloves clutched on his digging shovel which is also used to dig and bury people he… really 'truly dislike' or feel like deserve a punishment. He usually used it on his son, Roark – Sinnoh's first Gym Leader.

Anyways, right now, Byron was trying to befriend a Pokemon that he had just recently revived from Oreburgh City. "Come on Shieldon," Byron said trying to offer a friendly hand. "Why don't you take a break in the Poke ball?"

The little steel triceratops Pokemon gave a disdain look and turned away and whipped its tail, preferring to look at the grass and trees than Byron's face. The gym leader sighed. He had revived this little Pokemon from a fossil he found, but apparently, Shieldon doesn't even look grateful. So far, it was obedient enough to follow Byron, but that's about it.

Byron looked up and noticed a small fishing boat coming from the horizon where Route 218 was that also connected to Jubilife City. On it was a captain who, once he saw Byron, started to wave. It might be Byron's black eyes but the guy looked pretty concern and a bit relieved. And why does the ship look as though cannon balls had just blasted on the side of the ship?

"Hey there captain. What's wrong with the ship? Trouble with the fishes?" Byron grinned at his lame joke as the man jumped down from the boat when it finally landed on the wooden port side.

"Byron," the captain said, "We have a bit of a problem." Byron didn't have a chance to ask when one of the crew members had to shoulder a young boy out of the side. Byron gaped at the boy's blue hair and what appeared to be ears sticking out. It contrasted heavily with the boy's green face. This was the boy, Alex that Cynthia had talked about. Byron still couldn't believe Alex's appearance. How in the world does one look human yet have Pokemon qualities?

Shieldon glanced suspiciously at Alex. The boy looked human but gave a smell of Pokemon. Shieldon raised its guard and growled at the strange creature in front of him.

"Seasick?" Byron asked, looking not too concern at the problem. It was normal on a small boat. The captain scoffed and gave "yes, but that's not all" look.

"Apparently, my crew member," the captain glared at the guy, who gave a sheepish grin, "accidentally gave the kid some alcohol instead of water when he was experiencing some seasickness, and then… well, let's just say that the blue spheres blasting out of my ship weren't fireworks." Byron didn't know if he wanted to laugh of not. He managed to compromise with a large cough that sounded more like hidden laughter. He took another glance at the drunken kid who hiccupped occasionally.

"Well," Byron said calming down a bit, "I'll get someone to fix your boat, and I'll remember that when I get him on the ferry. We need to reach Iron Island by today." Alex immediately looked up with horror at the words (especially the word 'island'). Apparently his Lucario ears were still working even after everything he had been through. Immediately, Alex tried to run away back into the water as though he rather drown than go on another ship.

"Calm down," Byron said, laughing as the crew member grabbed Alex's blue jacket, "I got medicine so you won't feel sick." Alex stopped running, but he still looked concern. Apparently, he felt insecure with so many people around that he doesn't recognize. He wished Cynthia was here, but she had to something else to do. In fact, Cynthia had to 'declaw' Alex in order to stop him from clutching onto her arm.

"Well, come on then," Byron said as he got out his Pokegear. "Let's call my friend to let you know you'll be there soon." He dialed the number and waited for a while before he talked. "Hey, Riley, our friend is here. Let's prepare his training as soon as he gets there."

…

"After mixing ze dough, it'll 'arden and become a small Poffin," Fantina instructed, watching Damion epic failed another batch of Poffins. Fantina could smell the burnt smoke coming out from Damion's twentieth attempt. Mismagius, Fantina's Pokemon and taster of Damion's Poffins, was inching away as though it was about to puke from the smelling the same burnt taste over and over again.

Damion was completely bored and wasn't even noticing his Poffin. He was listening but doing the job rather poorly. He wanted to get something to eat and then have a gym battle, but this gym leader was crazy. "Debile (Idiot)!" Fantina cried as she hit Damion's head again for the twentieth one time.

"OW!" Damion yelled, massaging his head, "What was that for?"

"Echec! (Failure!)" Fantina yelled, pointing at Damion, "You obviously not care about Poffin!" She said this as though Damion had insulted every being of her coordinator occupation.

"Of course not!" Damion yelled back, "I don't want to be a Poffin maker! I battle for gym badges! In fact, why aren't we battling now?" He flung the trays of burnt Poffins into the air as though he just realized how stupid he was to do this without arguing.

"Pitiful," Fantina sighed, "Why did zis world create such a dimwitted child?"

"What's that suppose to mean?"

While Damion and Fantina continued to argue on one side of the room, Keira was helping with Lucas, who, for the first time, seemed to concentrate heavily and showed great interest. Lucas wore a small chef hat, and his entire apron and face covered with bits of gooey dough and mess. He was working on his fourth batch.

"I wish they stop yelling," Keira sighed as Damion and Fantina continued to roar back at each other. She made a mental note to take an aspirin later.

"How does this taste Poffin taste?" Lucas, who was deaf to the screaming, asked Buneary – the Poffin taster. Lucas gave the little bunny Pokemon a pink Poffin that he made using Pecha berries. The baby Buneary gave a long whiff of the fragrant odor before opening its mouth, quite widely, and chomping down the little Poffin with happiness.

"Miiiiii!" Buneary said joyfully. Keira couldn't help but smile. Lucas was surprisingly a natural talented cook. In fact, this whole time, Lucas hasn't complained or felt frustrated when he was creating Poffins. He seemed to observe slowly, but carefully, and results drastically improved.

"Hmmm," Lucas thought carefully as though Buneary's expression was good enough. He took a small taste from the batter of dough. "Need to stir more quickly or else it'll have a lack of smoothness in the end." With that, Lucas pushed the old batch away to make a new one. Buneary, cooing for more, gave Lucas' a fuzzy nudge. It was obvious that Buneary liked Lucas a lot.

Lucas took another Pecha berry and but it into the already prepare dough. He heated the stove and stirred slowly at first to prevent it from overflowing. Once the batter started to harden, he quicken the pace until finally, he had a finished pink Poffin.

"There we go," Lucas said, finishing another batch, consisting of eight. "This should be good." Buneary immediately took one and stuffed it into its mouth. This time, it clapped for joy and jumped around the room as though clapping wasn't enough to express what it was feeling.

Mismagius, feeling curious and a bit jealous, came over and swiped one of the Poffins from Lucas' hand and tasted it. Immediately, Mismagius sighed with relief and gave Lucas a somewhat scary smile.

"Zat is it!" Fantina cried coming over to Lucas. She took a piece of the Poffin as well and tasted it. Immediately, her eyes sparkled from the deliciousness. "Magnifique! You have talent to cook Poffins. Unlike zis scumbag who call 'imself a trainer." By scumbag, Fantina was referring to Damion.

"Hey!" Damion argued back, after taking a minute to realize who Fantina was talking about. "I'm more talented in Pokemon battles!" But no one was listening to him. Damion grumbled as he crossed his arms in frustration. He didn't like the fact that everyone was giving more attention to Lucas than to him.

"You are now officially part of ze Fantina's Poffin Club!" Fantina giggled as she hugged Lucas. Lucas looked dazed as though he doesn't know what was going on or what the big deal was. Buneary and Mismagius raised their "hands" as though they too want to join as well.

"Since when did you have a Poffin club?" Keira asked, confused.

"Since now," Fantina winked. Keira gave a slight groan which she tried to hide with a cough. "Why don't you show give some to your Pokemon to taste as well?" Fantina asked happily. Before Lucas could say anything, Fantina immediately swiped his Poke balls and released them. There stood Grotle, Muchlax, Shinx, and…

"Drifloon!" Fantina cried with happiness as she hugged the bewildered Pokemon, who was just starting to take in its surrounding, "You obviously admire me so much to capture a Drifloon. You must be mon biggest fan!"

"I am?" Lucas asked confused, but Fantina didn't seem to hear and continued to hug the struggled balloon Pokemon while Lucas' other Pokemon were bewildered as well.

"I will also allow you to join ze official Fantina fan club!"

"Since when did you have an official fanclub?" Keira asked, confused again, Fantina.

"Since now," Fantina said, winking again.

"Of course," Keira and Damion muttered. Keira looked up at the clock and realized the time. "Fantina!" Keira cried, "We're late! We need to get to the contest fast!"

"Quoi?" Fantina glanced at the clock as well, "Oh no! 'urry, 'urry!" Fantina immediately swooped the entire table, allowing the top to be clean but causing the ground to be splattered with everything. Fantina snatched Lucas and his Pokemon, who were all going to eat the Poffins, and dashed out the door.

"What is going on?" Damion asked as he and Keira tried to catch up.

"In a minute, we're going to a test trial of the new Pokemon Contest," Keira explained. Her Buneary jumped on to her shoulders and it looked pretty excited. "We changed the rules you see, so we decided to see if the rules will work and figure out any kinks. Fantina volunteered to test it out, while I'm supposed to be there to help judge. Both of us should've been there earlier."

Keira and Damion arrived back to the main room but took the hallway on the other side and soon they came across a large polished wooden door that had golden handles. Keira pushed it open, and Damion saw a large auditorium. Red carpet and red chairs surrounded a large stage. Matching curtains flowed in the middle on the ground was the symbol of the Pokemon Contest. On the side, there were three places for the judges to sit and score each coordinator. The Contest committee people there already, were waiting a bit impatiently. Fantina dragged Lucas to Johanna and Dawn, who were both uneasy with the silence and sitting in one of the front seats.

"Fantina," Johanna said as Keira and Damion finally came down, "Keira, you're late."

"Sorry!" Fantina said, bowing down repeatedly to her friend and the committee members.

"Hi Dawn," Lucas said politely, "Hello Ms. Berlitz." Dawn gave a smile, but she looked extremely nervous.

"I apologize as well," Keira said as she, too, bow in front of the committee, "We both lost track of time." There was a wave of sigh, but no one complained anymore about the lateness.

"Let's get this started," one of the Pokemon Contest judges said, getting up. He had on a red tux and receding gray hair. Dawn recognized him from the previous contest. He was Mr. Contesta. Next to Mr. Contesta was Mr. Sukizo – the president of the Pokemon fan club and the second judge. "Keira come over her," Mr. Contesta said, "Fantina let's get this started." Fantina and Keira ushered Lucas and Damion respectfully to sit in the seats next to Dawn and Lucas.

Lucas was about to sit next to Dawn when Damion rudely shove Lucas to the side so that Damion was sitting in between the two trainers. Apparently, Damion was still in a bad mood from Fantina's earlier comment. Lucas looked politely bewildered but sat down next to the fuming Damion. Dawn groaned but didn't say or do anything, not when there were so many people around. Lucas' Pokemon sat on Lucas' other side.

"So, what's up with this new rules deal?" Damion whispered to Dawn. The girl shrugged, looking just as lost as he was. Dawn was nervous even though Johanna promised that watching this test run they were doing will help Dawn be prepared for the real thing.

"Well," Johanna said, responding for Dawn, "We've decided that the older method is too much trouble. So we decided to cut down to two rounds. The first is appeals where showing off the Pokemon's move to create beauty. The second is battle which is the same as battling only it is not just making your opponent's Pokemon faint. You have to make it appealing at this same time because your points will decrease." Johanna immediately hushed as Keira cleared her throat for attention.

"Okay," Keira said, "Let's start, Fantina." Immediately the stage dimmed, and a spotlight shined on Fantina. She took out a Poke ball, but it looked extremely different. It was enclosed by a clear blue shell and there was a small black cloud at the place where the button is pushed to release the Pokemon.

"Is that a Ball Capsule?" Dawn asked, bewildered.

"What's a Ball Capsule?" Lucas asked as well.

"You'll see," Johanna smiled.

"Time to shine on stage!" Fantina said winking and threw her Pokeball into the air, "Spotlight Loony!" The Poke ball opened, and instead of a Pokemon coming out first, there was a large thick cloud of smoke appeared. It filled the whole stage before the large purple Driblim appeared. On its mouth was a large yellow 'X.'

"A Ball Capsule," Dawn whispered to Damion and Lucas, "is something you use to create a special effect. Stickers are attached to the capsule and depending on what type of sticker used will determine what the effect will be." Damion dimly nodded, more interested in the new Pokemon.

"So that's a Drifblim," Damion said as he checked his Pokedex on the Pokemon. "The evolve form of Drifloon…" Lucas immediately looked at his own Drifloon who stared at its large evolve form with longing.

"Floonnn…" Drifloon sighed. Immediately, Fantina's Driblim grabbed, with its four arms, its coordinator and floated to the air so that Fantina looked as though she was being carried by a large balloon.

"Zis smoke is too much!" Fantina said, "Use Ominous Wind!" Immediately Driblim created a large gust of wind appeared that was strangely black. All of the clouds moved away and a small tornado took place. In it, Fantina and Drifloon stood in place. "Magnifique! Now for beauty, use Silver Wind!" Immediately, the whole dark wind was suddenly sparkled with silver stars that swirled round like the Milky Way in the galaxy. Dawn and Johanna clapped with amazement. Damion rolled his eyes in boredom while Lucas stared dimly. For some reason, the sparkling appeal reminded him of ice cream swirling around and around and around and… zzzzzz.

"Finish with Gust!" Fantina cried as the final move. Immediately, Drifblim shot a tornado of wind that sent the appeal out to where the audience was, and the sparkly dust fell to down as though shooting stars were falling like snow. Driblim dropped to the ground, and Fantina got down before she bowed down.

"Wonderful," Keira said through the microphone, "You've improved a lot."

"Zank you," Fantina smiled and sighed happily. "It was a perfect practice."

"Okay," Mr. Contesta said as he wrote some stuff down, "That'll do. Now let's get on to the battle part. Johanna, you're participating right?" Johanna stood up, but instead of walking toward the stage, she looked directly at Mr. Contest.

"Actually, I was thinking that my daughter should do the battle test instead."

"What?" Dawn and Damion gasped simultaneously.

"Zzzz… huh?" Lucas asked dimly. Lucas' Pokemon looked around curiously, unsure of what was going on.

"I told you earlier," Johanna said, smiling at her bewildered daughter, "We're going to help you get prepared for the contest. What better chance to do it than now?"

**Author's Notes**

Fantina vs. Dawn - who will win? Place your bet folks! Lol.

Okay, guys, I have a bit of important news. **I'm going to be on vacation** for about a month and won't update during the entire month of June. I've never liked the idea of packing. :O SO, this might be the last update before I leave for my trip. Once I get back, I'll start updating again.

Also, I have created a new story. If you like Pokemon Colosseum and Ranger games then check it out and give me some feedback if you can.

Also, what do you guys think about the new legendary Pokemon – Reshiram and Zekrom? For some reason, they both look like something I would find in a Yu Gi Oh card. Lol. Though, seriously, I really have no opinion on these legendary Pokemon.

Let's thank my reviewers.

…

**Pikana**

**Solyeuse** (Slap! There you go. That's the light humor I was looking for. Lol. Thanks for helping out with my grammar and for the review.)

**PeachyKeenx088**

**Sparky**

**Ketchum Kid** (lol. I guess in Mars defense, she doesn't know much yet. Thanks for the review.)

**gg121** (Woo! Another update! Lol. Thanks for reviewing.)

**Light-Sakura** (Randomness will rule over the world! There will even be a Random holiday! And the best thing is that no one knows when it is because it is random! Lol. Thanks for the review.)

**Jarkes**

**RWT**

**WildCroconaw**

…

That's it from me guys.

Please review. It makes me so glad to know that they're people reading my story.

**-JapanDreamer**


	59. You and Me! Outside, Right Now!

**Disclaimer: Pokemon can't be owned by fanfic writers.**

Hey guys! I'm backkkkk! It was a good vacation. But after a while I missed writing. :D

I think this chapter is a bit rusty but hopefully, I'll be able to write more in the next chapter. I just wanted to write enough so that you guys know that I'm not completely dead yet. Lol.

And something special is coming up in a couple of weeks! Can you guess what it is?

Enjoy the chapter!

**Chapter 56:**

"Merveilleux idea!" Fantina exclaimed, clapping her hands delicately like a dancer. "To battle against ze famous Johanna's daughter is a 'onor."

"Shouldn't it be the other way around?" Dawn muttered to herself, turning slightly red at the attention she was getting, not just from the Gym Leader but also from the judges.

"Battling in this Contest is a one on one battle," Keira explained as she went through her notes on the new rules. Her voice was amplified greatly from the microphone in front of her judge's seat. "You are judged by the three of us for creativity in your attacks and the effectiveness against the opponent. Of course, you lose points if your opponent is able to counter your attacks by using creativity as well. The battle lasts for five minutes. At the end, the coordinator with the least points, with no points, or with fainted Pokemon will lose and the other will be declared the winner."

"Just hurry up and get to the battle!" Damion yelled impatiently from the audience. Keira flinched from Damion's interruption while Johanna tried to shush Damion to be quiet.

"Garconnet!" Fantina yelled while snapping her fingers, "If you do not shut up, I'll personally make sure you get thrown out!"

"What?" Damion yelled, "I'm just being honest!"

"What does 'garconnet' mean?" Lucas asked Johanna. Both of them ignored the shouting war between Fantina and Damion that felt more like a tennis rally.

"I think it means 'little boy,'" Johanna whispered quietly, not wanting to add sparks to the fire that was already growing.

"You think I'm LITTLE?" Damion yelled, "I would like to see you try and beat me!"

"Oh you think I can't?" Fantina said. Her voice was starting to carry a thicker French accent than before.

"Oops," Johanna sighed, "Guess he heard it."

"Stop fighting!" Mr. Contesta ordered, "I'm going to have to throw both of you out if you two don't stop acting like elementary kids!" Mr. Contesta looked so scary that Fantina and Damion both shut up. "Now," Contesta coughed in embarrassment, "Let's begin this practice round shall we?"

Immediately a large dark blue colored scoreboard was lowered down from above the stage. On opposite sides there were two pictures – one of Fantina and the other of Dawn. Beneath the pictures was a round yellow colored donut shaped that had a red colored Poke ball in the middle.

"All right!" Fantina said, getting fired up, "Let's 'ave Madame Mismagius on to ze field!" Fantina threw up her Poke ball (in a ball capsule with three black hearts sticker in front) into the air and out popped out Fantina's Mismagius, grinning an evil yet mysterious smile. Black hearts floated everywhere and Mismagius used its shroud to cut the hearts in halves as though to prove its amusement.

"Oh boy," Dawn said, realizing that Fantina was really serious now. However, Dawn wasn't going to give up without a fight, "Aipom let's go!" Dawn released her new Pokemon for its very first Pokemon Contest battle.

"Ohhhh!" Fantina said, gasping with amusement, "Ze battle 'as become more interesting!"

"What does she mean by that?" Lucas asked with confusion. But before Johanna could explain, it was Damion who responded.

"Idiot!" Damion whispered in case Mr. Contesta heard him, "Normal types, like Aipom, are unaffected by ghost moves. Fantina's choices in attacks are now reduced and limited since Mismagius learns mostly ghost attacks."

"Oh!" Lucas said as he thought about it, "Then Dawn has the upper hand."

"Maybe," Johanna muttered, and Lucas looked confused at Johanna's lack of calmness. Dawn's mother fidgeted a bit in her seat and even looked worry despite her encouragement to her daughter. "Although Normal types can't be damaged by ghost type, the same can be said the other way around."

"So both are at a disadvantage," Damion said to clear things up with Lucas, who still didn't get it. "Plus Fantina probably has been in this situation before so she should have a counter method."

"That's not it…" Johanna didn't elaborate what she said and Lucas had to miserably watch Dawn try to take advantage of what was clearly a losing battle.

"Aipom Sand Attack!" Dawn ordered. Aipom used its tail hand to grab and fling a shower of sand. Despite Aipom having the first attack, Fantina simply grinned and didn't look worry at all.

"Mismagius! Dodge and then use Confuse Ray!" Mismagius, with blue glowing eyes, disappeared and appeared above the attack. Immediately a giant blue and purple ray of light flashed immediately. The Sand Attack was filled with purple and blue sparkles that lit up the stage. Immediately, Dawn's points on the scoreboard began to decrease by a fourth.

"Wow," Keira said with amazement, "that's Fantina for you."

"Do not forget!" Fantina cried out to Dawn, "If you can't counter then your points decrease!"

"Amazing!" Damion gasped, "She managed to dodge and counter easily. "Dawn's points went' down a bit!" Lucas fidgeted in his seat. Dawn was doing very poorly and it was only the first move. Immediately, Lucas' Pokemon started to cheer with encouragement. Shinx even sent out several small blue sparks into the air.

"That's not all," Johanna said. Lucas, and even Damion, looked puzzled until they saw Aipom, with swirling eyes, spun around as though it just went on a dizzy ride.

"Ah man," Damion groaned, realizing what was going on, "Confuse Ray causes the enemy to be confuse as well! If Aipom hurts itself, it'll be Dawn's points going down the drain." Sure enough, Dawn's points were slowly decreasing.

"Aipom!" Dawn cried in desperation, "Snap out of it!" But it wasn't working and Dawn's points kept going down.

_This is what I was afraid of_, Johanna thought. Dawn was strong but easily got scared. The girl was shivering in place as though it was cold despite the warm spotlight from above. Fantina noticed this as well and frowned at the girl's immediate lack of will to fight anymore. Perhaps this was why Johanna wanted Dawn to battle. Dawn needed to become stronger and braver before the next contest or she'll fail for sure.

Dawn stared miserably at the points on the scoreboard. Fantina's were still untouched and Dawn was down to almost only a half left. Nothing was coming in mind and Dawn was almost to the point of giving up. She could feel the tears welling up in her eyes.

_I can't win at this rate…_

"Come on Dawn!" Dawn saw Lucas waving his hand and smiling. "You can do it!" Lucas yelled in encouragement.

"Stupid!" Damion said as he choked Lucas' throat, "You're not suppose to yell that loud! You're supposed to do it like this!" Damion turned his attention to Dawn this time though Lucas' face was turning very red from still being choked. "DAWN! DON'T GIVE UP WITHOUT A FIGHT! WIN!"

"Calm down you two!" Johanna said flustered, "And Damion, please let go of Lucas. He's choking to death." Dawn couldn't help but a feel a surge of courage and immediately relaxed.

"Damion!" Fantina yelled, "Stop choking my number one fan to death!" She said this frantically and waved her hands around.

Dawn took a deep breath and immediately, her fear was quelled down. "Come on Aipom! Get back on track!" Dawn's encouragement caused Aipom to snap out of confusion, and immediately, Dawn's points decreased.

"Oh!" Fantina said, surprised. "Looks like you got your fighting spirit back!"

"Aipom!" Dawn called out, "Astonish!" Immediately, Mismagius was hit by the Ghost attack, which is super effective. Fantina's points dropped heavily to more than a fourth.

"Oh!" Fantina squealed, "Ghost no good! Mismagius, use Shadow Ball!" A large dark purple ball of energy blasted immediately to Aipom.

"Counter!" Dawn said, without missing a beat, "Focus Punch!" Aipom's tail hand glowed blue and the Pokemon jumped up and slammed against the attack. The Shadow Ball exploded into smaller dark orbs that fell to the ground like meteors. Keira was amazed at the quick thinking move. Dawn has her mother's talent in counterattacking.

"Muuuu." Keira looked down and saw her baby Buneary staring at the attack with pure admiration. Its eye was twinkling like the stars. Buneary's ear even started to twitch with excitement and was hopping a bit as though it wanted to join the battle.

_Hmmm._

"Magnifique!" Fantina exclaimed despite the fact that it was her points that were going down. "You countered perfectly! 'owever…" This time Fantina looked serious, "Don't expect to win zat easily! Mismagius, use Psywave!" The attack spread out like pink sound waves and hit Aipom. Before the Pokemon could react, Mismagius disappeared and appeared right behind it. "Finish with another Shadow Ball!" The attack this time didn't miss and caused Aipom to faint.

_BZZZT!_ The judges pressed the 'X' marked button on their panels, deciding that Aipom couldn't battle any longer. Fantina was the winner of this mock battle.

"J'ai gagnez!" Fantina smiled as she hugged her Mismagius, "I win!" She returned her Pokemon and walked over to Dawn. "Zat was a good battle; I wish you luck in ze real contest. But don't expect to 'ave ze same luck as you did today." Dawn smiled and bowed politely.

"Thank you for allowing me to practice. I know I need to work harder next time." Dawn's brain was filled with unlimited possibilities that Dawn really wanted to try out later.

"Great battle Dawn," Johanna said as she got up on stage to congratulate as well, "This has become good experience for you for your upcoming contest." Dawn grinned and slightly blushed at her mother's praise.

"Dawnnnn!" Damion cried as he too came on stage, "You're supposed to win!" He waved his hands around frantically as though he was the one who just lost." "You can't lose to someone like that!" He pointed to Fantina when he said this.

"Ingrat!" Fantina yelled, "You zink I'm that weak?" Fantina, looking as though she was about to explode and kill the boy, grabbed Damion by the collar while Dawn, Johanna, and Keira tried to calm the Gym Leader down.

"Hey Fantina, Damion is just be an idiot," Dawn said, trying to pry Fantina's fist from Damion's collar shirt. "Just let it go."

"Yeah. Just take a deep breath and let go of the boy," Johanna said as Keira and she tried to pull gently on Fantina's shoulder as though the lady was a ticking bomb that could go off by the slightest touch. Unfortunately, Fantina and Damion seemed to be in their little world right now. Both seemed to be having a very angry staring contest.

"VOU AND ME! OUTSIDE NOW!"Fantina screamed, pointing to the door, "I vill make you scream like a little girl!"

"Bring it on French woman! If I win, then you have to give me that badge!" Damion retorted with the same amount of anger. With that, Fantina dragged Damion down the stage and kicked the door wide open, almost causing it to break off its hindges. There was an eerie silence in the stage as everybody tried to comprehend what had just happened.

"So," Lucas said as though he was just figuring out what was happening, "Do you think Damion will be all right?"

"Eh," Dawn shrugged, not interested whether or not Damion will get killed, "I have to concentrate practicing for the contest; so as long as the police aren't evolve, I don't care."

…

"Gwahahahaha! I can't believe you're this scared," Byron said as he watched his little friend on the port side of the boat as though he rather swim to this island. Byron had to grab Alex by the boy's blue jacket to stop him from actually jumping. Byron patted Alex in reassurance but the energy just caused Alex to almost buckle at the knees. Shieldon watched this interaction without much interest and walked a bit farther away to find something else more enjoyable to do.

"It won't take long," Byron said, winking at the silent but very scared boy, "This boat goes pretty fast." He held his arms out as to emphasize the mighty power of the ship. It was white and slick and looked somewhat like a tug boat. There were at least ten sailors up here with Byron and Alex. All of them were preparing to get ready to leave. The port in Canalave City was small, so the boat was designed to accommodate that. Plus, the ship doesn't go out that far usually. Still, Alex was still uneasy and his Lucario ears twitched with uncertainty. Alex even almost jumped up in surprise as the ship blew its loud and low bullfrog sounding horn.

"Don't worry," Byron said as the ship started to slowly move through the water, "It gets a lot more fun." Alex looked around and noticed that the city was cut into two from the water mass. The only thing connecting the place together was the large wooden drawbridge that slowly rose up to allow the tall ship to pass. Each side cars and people were waiting patiently for the boat to pass. Some even waved to the sailors that they recognize.

"Get ready," Byron grinned and had a slight maniac look to his face. He tapped the shovel against the wooden planks as though he was getting slightly impatient. Alex immediately paled and gripped the railings even tighter.

He didn't like the sound of that.

**Author's Notes**

Well, we have another battle going on now – Fantina vs. Damion. I wonder who'll win this time. Lol.

By the way, the new Black and White Pokemon are… well… creative? I think the only one I really like is that white Chinchilla Pokemon. And we finally have a female professor!

Plus in the anime, there is going to be a new girl for the BW saga. I sincerely hope it is not another coordinator. Please give us a trainer again.

Anyways, nothing really special happened here except Dawn learning the Contest battle. I'll put in more action in the next chapter and hopefully start the contest in the next chapter.

I promise it'll be way longer than usual.

Let's thank my reviewers now! (If I forget you, I'm sorry, but with so many emails I forget who reviewed previously. So let me know and I will fix it.)

…

**RWT**

**Sparky**

**Pikana**

**gg121** (hey there! Miss me? Lol. Thanks for reviewing.)

**ME** (hmmm, I haven't really reveal what it is but keep reading and you might find out. XP)

**Light-Sakura**

**Ketchum Kid **(Yes, I figured that anime style contest is way easier and faster. Plus, I can spend more time describing moves and attacks. Thanks for reviewing. Ps. I win ten bucks. Lol.)

**Solyeuse** (Ah, in author notes, I tend to not care too much about grammar because I try to focus more on the story. Oh well. Thanks for helping out and I hope this chapter is better. I think the vacation kind of oozed by brain a bit.)

**Jarkes**

**SagaAuraMan**

**WildCroconaw**

**Unknown** (Awww, thanks so much for the compliment. I love writing stories (I have a gazillion ideas in my head right now), but I usually don't have time to write with school and all. Sigh.)

**hydro-serpent58**

**1 trainer** (three whole days? You either have a lot of time, or you can read really fast. It would take me five days with so much stuff I have going on.)

**Skylar the rabbit** (Hey there! Hope you're still reading. Thanks for reviewing and I hope to hear from you again.)

**Furryfur **(Aw, so sorry. XP By the way, what do you mean almia? What does that region have to do with Diamond and Pearl story? Anyways, thanks for reviewing)

…

All right that's it from me!

I've got a few good comments about my new story so I'll update that regularly as well. Remember I update a story one at a time.

See you in the next chapter!

**-JapanDreamer**


	60. Random Sightseeing and a French Battle

**Disclaimer: Wanted. A person who own Pokemon on this fanfic.**

Hey everyone! As promised, the chapter is SUPER LONG! Hooray!

First off, I lie about the contest. I'm sorry but after realizing how long this paper is, I figure I should put it in the next chapter and finish it in the next chapter.

Second off, I decided to introduce an OC I made – **Ven**. The name is somewhat of a sad memory of a game that I'll never get because it would require me to buy another STUPID GAME CONSOLE! Grrr. (For those who understand a word I'm saying and know this game I'm talking about, welcome to the secret club. Hehehe)

Enjoy!

**Chapter 57:**

Lucas walked around the lobby of the Contest Area. Dawn went to do some secret special training with her mom while Damion was outside getting ready to battle Fantina (which was something Lucas didn't want to watch for fear of being annihilated).

"So what do you want to do?" Keira said, walking by Lucas. For the first time since Keira remembered, Buneary was hopping between Lucas and her. Buneary seemed to have developed a small crush on Lucas because it kept cooing and hugging Lucas' leg to get him to notice her. "Do you want to go and make more Poffins while you wait?" But at that moment, something came rushing toward them like a freight train.

"KEIRAAAAA!" Immediately, Fantina appeared out of now where and almost crushed Keira's ribs into pieces.

"What?" Keira gasped and was violently shaken.

"Dérangement!" Fantina screamed and continued to shake Keira like a bobbing toy, "Ze referee is out on vucation and ve need someone to judge!"

"SOoooO wHyyY AreE yOuuU ShAKiNGggg MeEeeE?" Keira asked, starting to feel dizzy from the moving back and forth. Fantina didn't seem to understand what Keira was saying and continued.

"Vou can judge! You judged for my battle with Dawn!" Fantina immediately grabbed Keira by the jacket and dragged her out. "Let's go!"

"Wait hold on!" Keira protested, trying to reach out to Lucas for help, "I'm on my breakkkkkkkk!"

"Bye," Lucas said, not really sure what to say and Buneary shook its ears good bye as it watched its owner being dragged and taken hostage by the purple lady. Lucas was now alone in the lobby and wondered what he should do now. Buneary hopped around happily and finally jumped into Lucas' arms and cuddled.

Lucas walked around, unsure what to do now. He could cook some Poffins but without Keira or Fantina there, Lucas was too shy to ask the workers here for help. Basically, he had nothing to do. Lucas remembered Dawn asking him once what he wanted to do in life. She already wanted to be a coordinator; Damion wanted to become a trainer – what's left for him to do? There must be something…

"Hey there!"

_What can he do right now? Maybe Dawn will want some Poffins for tomorrow's contest. Maybe he should gather his courage and ask._

"HEY! Kid with the blue jacket and red beret!"

_Or maybe he should wait until Dawn is done and ask what Pokemon she'll use so that he can prepare without wasting so much time._

"Kid with the Buneary!" Lucas awakened from his dazed thoughts and looked behind to see a bright looking kid wearing a sky blue and white backpack and was more than ten feet away. The kid, about fifteen years old, had short blond hair that swirled around his head and stuck up on the right side. His hair in the back stuck out like small stubby needles. He had on a white baseball cap with a red Poke symbol on it, and wore a white jacket with a black hood with the sleeves folded to his elbows. Over the jacket was a tight black t-shirt. He wore long sandy brown cargo pants with many pockets and red and black tennis shoes. His green eyes looked curiously at Lucas. The boy gave a cheerful wave and that was when Lucas noticed that there was a thick white cotton wristband on the boy's wrist.

"Ye-yes?" Lucas asked confused. Buneary perked up with interest at this new kid. Many of the employees here as well as the security guards sent here were eyeing the two with suspicion. The blond hair kid was very loud and was being annoying.

"Hi! Are you touring around here as well?" the kid asked. Lucas stared back daze-like.

"T-tour?"

"Yeah!" the kid grinned and ran up to Lucas so that they were now face to face, "Isn't Hearthome City amazing?" He spread out his hands as though to bask in the glory. "I came here from Johto to Sinnoh for a wide tour of some of the famous places here. Hearthome has the most amazing stuff here. I was so glad to hear that there is a contest here tomorrow. I noticed you were walking around and thought you were touring the place as well."

"N-no." Lucas said, feeling uncomfortable at this kid's cheerfulness. Buneary immediately began flickering its ears as though ready to fight. "I'm just here waiting for someone."

"Ahhh," the kid sighed, looking really depressed now, as he rubbed his head in embarrassment, "And I wanted a buddy to talk to. It gets kind of lonely to walk by myself…" Lucas didn't know what to do or what to say.

"I know!" the kid exclaimed, making Lucas flinch from surprise, "Why don't you come with me? I mean, unless you're not doing anything…"

"Oh, ummm," Lucas muttered. Dawn was going to take a while to practice and Damion… well, that was going to take a long time as well.

"I'll pay you for dinner if you do," the kid smiled.

"Okay," Lucas immediately brightened. Buneary jumped for joy as well. The Poffins it had eaten earlier seemed to have disappeared.

"I'm Ven. Who are you?"

"I'm… Lucas."

"Okay Lucas," Ven grinned, raising his fists into the air, "Let's go exploring!"

…

"All right! Only zree battles and zree Pokemon – no substitutions unless between battles!" Fantina announced to Damion on the other side of the badly drawn field that looked like a six year old used chalk to draw it. Keira sighed as she stood by the side as the referee. How in the world did it come to this?

"All right," Damion grinned, happy that he will finally battle, "I'm ready to win and get that badge!"

"Trying to be tough," Fantina said, smirking, "But zat won't get you anywhere! Go Gengar!" Out popped a large purple ghost Pokemon with a diabolic grin on its face.

"Go Staravia!" Damion called out and the large bird popped out of its Poke ball and flew into the air. "My Staravia is a normal flying type so no ghost moves will affect it! Wing Attack!"

"Gengar!" Fantina called out sweetly putting her hands together like a prayer, "Sucker Punch!" Before Staravia could attack, Gengar immediately slammed its dark aura fist into the bird. "Splendide!" Fantina cried, "Now use Zunder!"

"No Fantina!" Keira yelled, suddenly freaking out and wring her hands in fear, "Don't use that attack!"

"Zu – Wait, what?" Damion gaped as the clouds immediately darkened over head, giving Gengar a more dangerous and ghastly look as its eyes glowed red. Gengar immediately raised its arms to the sky and made a downward motion. A downpour of lighting started to shoot from the clouds and onto the battle field. "AHHHHHH!"

The lightning bolts were getting out of control, striking everywhere and anywhere. Staravia panicked as the lightning came down and tried to land to the ground but was immediately fried by the electricity. There was a moment of silence as the clouds cleared away, revealing bright sunlight. It was as though, the attack had never occurred.

"Staravia is unable to battle," Keira groaned as she choked on the smoke and was clearly angrly. She could smell the smoking taste of her hair which was now frizzy. "And Fantina, could you not do that again?"

"J'ai gagnez! I win!" Fantina screamed with happiness and hugged her Gengar as though it was a large Teddiursa bear. Gengar gave an evil laugh (which sounded way too creepy to be a good sign) and gave a peace sign with its hand. Fantina was completely oblivious to Keira's suggestion. "Vunderful!"

"Wait a minute!" Damion demanded, "How does Gengar know Zun- I mean, Thunder?"

"I've taught it!" Fantina grinned happily. "Only ze smartest people can teach zeir Pokemon special attacks." Damion stared blankly at Fantina. "Second battle now! Drifblim!" Fantina returned her happy Gengar and sent out her second Pokemon, the same one she used for the pre-contest earlier. This Pokemon was obviously performed more for contest than battle because it floated around with the wind and twirled as though there was not a care in the world. Fantina also made a swooshing twirl of her purple dress as though she was in a ballroom dancing.

"What kind of answer is that?" Damion yelled as he watched in a dumbfounded look at Fantina as she started a strange tango with her Drifblim. It was as though the two didn't even notice or care that the battle was still going. Keira put her fingers to her forehead as though she was experiencing a migraine – then again, she kind of was. Frustrated, Damion returned Staravia and sent out his second Pokemon as well. "Go Buizel!" The arrogant and tough looking water weasel crossed its arms and puffed its chest up proudly.

"Drifblim!" Fantina cried, "Gust attack!" A small tornado started to form, causing the whole place to be blowing both dust and dirt into the air.

"All right Buizel!" Damion said, getting pumped and excited, "Let's show Fantina what we're made of use Aqua Jet." But Buizel immediately went into action before Damion could really finish his sentence. Buizel's body was immediately covered with water and shot up like rocket through the center of the Gust tornado attack until it was on staring face to face with Drifblim. However, if Buizel didn't act fast enough, then gravity will play its part and pull the water weasel Pokemon back down.

"Oh no!" Fantina cried, "Drifblim use Shadow Ball!"

"Buizel!" Damion yelled, "Ice Punch!" Drifblim sent out the dark shadowy globe, but Buizel, its arm glowing now, simply punched the orb so that an icy shell was formed around it. Then, using all of its strength, Buizel threw the icy Shadow Ball back at Drifblim. The impact caused a huge explosion that resulted in tiny star like ice that sparkled with dark purple light.

"Noooooooooo!" Fanitna screamed, putting her hands to her cheeks, as she stared in horror at her deflated Pokemon crash to the ground – its eyes were now giant 'X's'. "Ma Pokemon!"

"Drifblim is unable to battle," Keira sighed as she raised her arm to where Damion's was standing, "Damion wins this round."

"YES!" Damion punched his fist into the air, "I win!" Buizel did a flip and landed to the ground safely on its two legs, puffing out its chest with even more pride. Buizel and Damion seemed to both have the same arrogant looking faces.

"Hmm," Fantina said thoughtfully as she returned her Drifblim, "Your attack was beautiful. I see you appreciate coordinating more than you let on." She was watching the falling ice particles still as though she was entranced by it.

"Huh?" Damion said, not understanding what Fantina was implying. Then again, Damion didn't really care if his attacks were beautiful or not - as long as they KO the opponent.

"Third round," Fantina said, "Mismagius!" The purple Pokemon came out as though it was first blending in with the background and slowly reappearing. "My best Pokemon will not lose!"

"Yeah, well, neither will mine!" Damion returned his Buizel and sent out his fire Pokemon – Monferno. "Flame Wheel!" The fire monkey did a somersault to turn into a large flaming wheel and spun toward Mismagius. The ghost Pokemon was hit by the fire attack and Damion was feeling good, until he realized that Fantina didn't seem at all concern.

"Use ze Perish Song!" Fantina cried. Mismagius gave a loud cry that seemed to high to be heard by the human ear but the frequency was so strong, it made Damion's head almost split into a headache. "Now! Time limit on defeating me!" Fantina grinned, "Finish me in three moves, you win! Don't… well, you lose!"

"Curse the no substituting rule!"

"I know, that's why I made that rule," Fantina winked. "Pain Split!" Immediately, Mismagius' health bar rose a bit while Monferno dropped. "Follow by Psybeam!"

"Monferno!" Damion said, starting to panic. Only three attacks and that's it. "Flame Wheel again!" However, this time, Monferno's attack was being pushed back by Mismagius' powerful multicolor ray of light until finally, Monferno finally couldn't hold on and was blown into the air before crashing down. "Get up!"

Only two more attacks…

"Mismagius, use Confuse Ray!"Fantina squealed as hid her eyes with her gloved hands. There was a sudden blast of white light and when Damion was able to see the field again, Monferno's eyes were swirling with confusion.

"Monferno!" Damion yelled in desperation but the monkey ignored him and kept hitting itself, wasting one turn. Only one attack left.

"Vou know, I zink I'll finish zis off before the countdown," Fantina grinned, knowing that she won for sure, "Mismagius, another Psybeam!" Mismagius sent another colorful ray at Monferno who immediately fell to the ground, fainting.

"Monferno is unable to battle," Keira said in a bored tone, glad that this was almost over, "Fantina wins. With two wins and one lost, the winner of this match is Fantina."

"Wahoo!" Fantina screamed with her fist in the air. She had a joyous look on her face as she danced around Keira. "Ve won!" Fantina gave Mismagius a small hug before returning the happy Pokemon back into its Pokeball.

"I… lost?" Damion said as though he couldn't believe what he had just witness.

"Do not worry!" Fantina grinned, still in a good mood, "Vou can always come back again… and loze!" That sparked a bit of fire back in Damion.

"Well just you wait!" Damion retorted, energy blazing back, "When I come back, I'm going to make sure you cry! IN FRENCH!"

"HA!" Fantina scoffed, "Ze French never cry and never lose to a weak puny boy like you!"

Keira watched as the two continued to argue back and forth before deciding to leave them be. It was then that she realized that Lucas still had her Buneary. Hopefully they are still waiting in the Contest hall.

…

"And this is the Foreign Building," Ven said happily as he read the tour guide manual, "A wonderful place to sit and enjoy the… philosophy of life?" Ven reread what he just said as though there was something wrong with his eyes. Lucas stared in dazed amazement at what looked like a large cathedral – stained glass as windows depicting colors and white smooth marble walls with reddish tiles on the roof. Buneary flicked its ears with uneasiness. It remembered coming here once but got told off for 'dancing too much.' "I wonder why it is called that though… Anyways, let's go check it out." Ven grabbed Lucas by the wrist and dragged the poor boy to the entrance of the building.

Ven and Lucas tentatively stepped into through the large polished doors. In front of them were a white marble fountain that had water spraying out of the top to create arches. A huge archway leaded them down a large blue carpet walkway where it opened up into a room where many people, mostly old, were sitting on wooden benches. All were facing the front where a large painting of a forest with a large brown mountain in the middle. Rings of clouds were coming out of the mountain like smoke. On opposite sides of this painting were stained glass windows that brought in rainbow sunlight into the room. The strangest thing about this place was that there was no music – not much of a sound except the murmuring sounds of water as it slowly spew out of the fountain.

"This place is sooooo werid," Ven said, not keeping his voice down. Several people hissed at Ven and glared at him as though he was some contagious kid. Ven gave a sheepish grin and rubbed the back of his head in apology. Buneary struggled out of Lucas' arms and slid into his backpack. It was already creep out by this place and want hide until this was over.

The people immediately turned their heads back and started to discuss something along the lines of "Spirits and nature joining together" and other things like that.

"I take it back, these people are weird." This time, Ven said this in a whispered voice.

Lucas stared dimly at this place. It was pretty quiet. Many people looked relaxed and happy here though this talk about philosophy puzzled Lucas. Then again, Lucas immediately wondered if he was a spirit. He was fading in and out of this place… maybe he no longer has a body and was slowly disappearing into…

"Lucas!" Ven hissed and grabbed Lucas by the wrist again. Lucas snapped out of his confusion and blinked with puzzlement. "These people are getting kind of mad. Let's get out here for now." With that Ven dragged Lucas out of the building – where it seemed to be questioning his very being in this world.

…

"That is a good idea," Johanna said, sitting on the squat square stool, as she watched her daughter panted in exhaustion as she tried to decide combos. They were in the small backyard of the Contest area. There were tall green (slightly turning yellow and red) leaved trees bordering the fence as though to block from intruders from coming in or out. Aipom had just used Swift to send a shower of yellow stars into the sky; they all came crashing down like shooting stars and broke off into smaller star pieces when they hit the ground. "But don't you think it's a little bit too much? Too much Swift attacks will make your Pokemon go unnoticed and hidden."

"I guess," Dawn sighed. She kind of wished that the problem her mother pointed out wouldn't really matter. At the time it was a good idea but Aipom was immediately covered by the shower of stars. The judges and the audience wouldn't be able to see Aipom at all. "I just can't figure out what creative things to do with limited attacks… Maybe Prinplup should do the appeal…" But this too was a problem since Prinplup was the better fighter than Aipom.

Aipom looked guilty and climbed on Dawn's shoulder to rub her head in apology. Dawn frowned and continued to pace across the lawn as though hoping for an idea. Aipom's attacks were mostly normal or fighting. There was nothing really special like element attacks. That was a big problem because it was difficult to make something flashy.

"Try something simple," Johanna said, giving Dawn another pointer, "But use different combinations together. Who knows, maybe something easy can still bring a spectacular show." Dawn still frowned but Johanna didn't have time to continue helping. "I have to help out now, but I'm sure you can figure something out." Johanna opened the back door and softly closed it behind her. From a top coordinator's viewpoint, Johanna was quite worried. Dawn obviously didn't do any serious training so far and tomorrow was the contest. However, in her motherly point of view, Johanna was confident that Dawn would figure it out. After all, she was her daughter.

Dawn frowned and immediately got out a piece of paper from her journal and a pen. She jolted all the moves that her Aipom knew and stared determinately as though this was some sort of matching puzzle. This was difficult, but she knew she'll figure it out.

Dawn wasn't going to give up yet.

…

"OH!" Ven exclaimed with excitement, "The Amity Square!" He jumped up and down like a five year old in an amusement park. Lucas was amazed at the amount of energy Ven seemed to have. He was a lot like Damion. The only difference was that Ven was more good humor and carefree… kind of like Lucas.

"Amy – wha?" Lucas asked confused.

"Amity Square!" Ven exclaimed and showed Lucas the location on the map. Lucas noticed that made a loop around the Pokemon Contest so that there were two entrances. Right now, they were on the west side of the city. "You take cute Pokemon for walks and they may find items for you."

"Oh. Why didn't we come here first before that Foreign Building since Amity Square was closer to the Contest building?" Lucas asked such good questions at times.

"Oh, well," Ven sheepishly grinned and stuck out his tongue in apology as he rubbed his head, "I kind of got lost when I was tour guiding for you…"

Buneary jumped out of Lucas' bag and looked up at the giant pink colorful neon sign with a Torchic attached to the roof of the entrance of a small square building with steps going up. There were no doors needed to open or close and the openness seemed to welcome them. Before Lucas could do anything, Buneary immediately ran straight into the park.

"Hey wait! Come back!" Lucas exclaimed, noticing Buneary leaving, and he stumbled to try and follow the mischievous Pokemon. Ven, however, saw this as a good opportunity for a new game and hurried after Buneary like a hunting dog. They hurried through the small hall and just when Buneary was about to take a step toward the outside sunlight, Ven jumped, slid, and caught the little bunny.

"Gotcha!" Ven exclaimed and Buneary tried to struggle with its legs, arms, and ears to escape. It was like dealing with a five year old that refused to stay put. Ven held Buneary as far as away from him as possible for fear of being smacked by Buneary's ears and handed it to Lucas. Once in Lucas' arms, Buneary stopped struggling but pouted. "Don't worry," Ven grinned happily at Buneary, "We'll go into the park in a bit."

Lucas looked around and noticed many (mostly rich or well dressed) people were talking with their Pokemon. One woman with a pink scarf made baby noises for her tiny Pachurisu. A buff man was patting and brushing his Pikachu. They all must have finished their walk because they all looked very calm and relaxed.

Ven took out his tour guide manual, cleared his throat, and read the section on Amity Square out loud. "Okay, apparently only certain cute Pokemon are allowed in the park… Amity Square was created… blah, blah, blah…" Ven fumbled past a couple of pages before he got to the last section, "For more information or questions go to the Amity Square information desk…" Ven looked around and noticed that past the building and through the other opening leading to a grassfield. "Sounds interesting to check out." Ven placed the book back into bag and dragged Lucas outside.

Lucas and Ven couldn't help but gasp at the scenery. Tall trees bordered the large area. In the middle was a small pond with wooden planks to serve both as docks and as bridges. Small street lamps were dotted around for those who wanted to take a stroll when it was getting dark. But the most amazing thing was the strange looking huts that stood on the small cliffs. They looked like messed up ant hills with small glassless windows.

"Welcome!" A young short black cropped hair girl wearing a blue blazer and a small Sunday hat with a pink bowtie ribbon on it talked in a pleasant voice. "Are you here to walk your Pokemon?"

"Yup!" Ven grinned happily as though he just won the lottery, "We both are!"

"Great," the lady smiled politely, "May I see what Pokemon you're using?"

"Huh?" Ven said, this time a bit shocked.

"Remember, only certain Pokemon are allowed in," the lady pointed to the large board next to her that showed all of the pictures of Pokemon that were allowed in. "New rule is that you're allowed to bring more than one." Ven and Lucas looked down the list. Ven's face immediately began to pale. He checked his bag and Lucas noticed six Poke balls (in their miniature form) were rolling around in there. Ven took them out and look at each one as though he had X-ray powers and could see through the metal covering.

"Man," Ven groaned as he sat down in frustration, "I don't have a single Pokemon that can be walked here! What do I do? I wanted to tour this place so badlyyyy…" Ven ended this with a whine in his voice. Lucas dimly looked at the list again. The people here were kind enough to include pictures as well. There was Pikachu, Pachurisu, and…

"Oh," Lucas said surprised, "We do have Pokemon we can walk with."

"Huh?" Ven said, looking as though he was about to cry. Lucas took out two of his Pokeball and held them for Ven to see.

"We can still take a walk."

…

Dawn sighed as she came back into the building. Although, she tried really hard, the simple attacks were not enough to attract the crowd. Dawn came back to the front of the building and noticed that Damion was sitting on one of the large couches. Apparently, even though he was sleeping, he was making quite a bit of decent noise from his snoring.

"Wake up!" Dawn exclaimed and Damion woke up, got freaked out, and flipped off the sofa.

"Owwww," Damion groaned, rubbing his head.

"How did your battle go?" Dawn asked but by the look of Damion's face, not too good.

"I lost," Damion sighed, unhappily. "I guess I wasn't use to the rules Fantina gave out and just attacked. Fantina uses moves as though she was trying to finish the opponent quick and fast. Dunno how she does it…"

"Well of course," Dawn said surprised at Damion's oblivious state, "She had experience with Contest battles. And since there is a time limit, she needed to fight quickly. You are mostly use to direct attacks, but Fantina can easily turn it against you."

"I guess the contests really are useful," Damion muttered but noticed Dawn, too, didn't look happily. "What's wrong Dawn?"

"Oh, I couldn't figure out any good battle moves to use for the Contest appeal," Dawn shrugged and tried not look too worry. She gave the list of attacks to Damion to show him her problem.

"Well this is easy," Damion said, surprised. He took a pencil from his bag and started to jolt down a list of combinations of attacks, crossing things out once in a while. After about five minutes, Damion handed the paper back which was now filled with combos and moves to Dawn.

"Wow," Dawn said surprised, "Thanks. How did you…?"

"Remember my dad?" Damion said. Dawn remembered vaguely about Damion mentioning his father when they first met. Damion's father was some sort of famous battler but left Sinnoh for a while for other challenges. Before Dawn could respond… "He made me go through lists of attacks and determine combos and movements that could be used in battle. Of course, I never could try them out with Pokemon, but…" Damion shrugged and turned surprised when Dawn hugged him.

"Thanks, you're a life saver!"

"Oh well… ummm… yeah!" Damion said, trying to look proud and not too embarrassed.

"By the way," Dawn said as she looked around the place, "Have you seen Lucas?"

"I don't know," Damion said, looking puzzled as well, "Keira went to find him to get Buneary back but…"

…

"You're right!" Ven grinned, "We can walk here!" He looked back behind him and Lucas to see Buneary, Grotle, and Drifloon following them. Buneary was hopping along, playing in the grass once in a while. Grotle moved very slowly, taking its time as it enjoyed its nature walk. Drifloon tried to stay with the ground and not get blown away by the wind.

The park had very few people here – most of them have gone home. And the street lamps were slowly glowing brighter and brighter. The pond casted a pale reflection of the red sky and shattered into pieces when the wind blew across it.

"I love the fresh air and – Hey look!" Ven immediately rushed to a young bewildered girl trainer who was taking her Drifloon on a walk. "Another Drifloon!" Ven and the young girl immediately had an animated discussion about Hearthome and the park. Lucas looked at the sky and noticed that it was getting dark soon. Dawn and Damion didn't even know where he was and the memory of the last time he strayed off was still painfully lodged in his brain.

"You know, maybe we should go now," Lucas said, "It's getting dark." Ven looked up surprised as though he just realized this as well.

"Oh snap! I'm going to be late!" Ven exclaimed as he grabbed his bag and rushed toward the exit. He stopped for a moment when he realized something and turned back to scream, "I'M SORRY ABOUT DINNER! HOW ABOUT TOMORROW I TREAT YOU?"

"I can't," Lucas shook his head, remembering that tomorrow is important, "My friend is in the contest and I can't miss it."

"Oh!" Ven looked as though he just remembered this, "Well in that case, I'll meet you at the contest! I got to see it too! Don't be late! BYE LUCAS!" With that Ven rushed off and out of the park, leaving Lucas by himself.

"Well then," Lucas said to his three friends, "Shall we go home?"

…

"You went sightseeing?" Dawn said, not believing Lucas ran off on his own. Lucas came back shortly after, thanks to Keira, who took Buneary back, and immediately began his tale to Dawn and Damion. They were all sitting around a small table near the kitchen. Johanna decided to cook dinner for them at the hotel suite she was staying in. Unfortunately, she hadn't cook for such a long time that the only person who was enjoying it was Lucas. Dawn could smell the burnt flavor of peach cobbler as her mother rushed around, muttering something about gloves.

"Yeah, it was fun," Lucas said, not understanding what the big deal was as he took a stab of burnt beans into his mouth.

"I don't know if I should be appalled by your daring or sick by your eating," Dawn muttered as she looked at her food, which remained untouched. Damion was shoving food in his mouth, trying to and failing miserably to beat Lucas in eating. Damion was already turning green in the face and looked he was about to puke.

"It is actually good," Lucas remarked, "Leo –" Lucas stopped abruptly and Dawn looked up at the sound of the name.

"Leo?" Dawn asked suspiciously, "A friend?" Dawn suddenly realized that Lucas never mentioned friends before. In fact, she was shocked at herself for not asking Lucas about this before.

"No-nothing," Lucas said and tried to fill his big mouth with food.

"Come on," Damion said in a slight teasing but serious tone, "Who is this Leo?" Dawn's and Damion's faces told Lucas that there was no way they were going to drop this matter. Lucas gulped down his food as slowly yet as fast as he could before he responded.

"Ummm, he was a… friend," Lucas said carefully, choosing his words cautiously, "He couldn't cook…"

"And?" Damion pried but Dawn gave a kick under the table. She noticed Lucas was suddenly being more closed in – as though a shell was starting to cover him and his emotions.

"Ow!" Damion muttered as he rubbed his leg. Lucas got up shakily and muttered that he was tired and wanted to go to bed. Damion, despite Dawn's kick, decided to ask one more question.

"So, where is he now?" Lucas stopped at the door which led to a bedroom – three small beds Johanna made for the three of them to sleep.

"Gone." With that Lucas opened and closed the door, leaving an icy feeling in the room.

**Author's Notes**

On that happy note, I would like to thank everyone for their patience. IN ENGLISH! Lol.

I wanted to do another flashback but then that would require another three pages and I'm sure everyone is already bored with that story (plus, I'm lazy to come up new characters). XP

Pokemon Contest officially starts next chapter. **ANY OCS. NOW IS A GOOD TIME TO HAND THEM IN!**

And according to Bulbapedia (last time I checked) only 58 days till BW come out in Japan. Yay!

Anyways, let's thank my reviewers before I go.

…

**Sparky**

**Pikana**

**Ketchum Kid **(haha, the Pokemon battle is over but the shouting war is not! Thanks for the review.)

**Light-Sakura**

**Furryfur** (I don't know what we were talking about. You said something about missing the almia region in my story… anyways, thanks for reviewing.)

**SagaAuraMana**

**RWT**

**SynctrainerLucas**

**gg121 **(lol. Yes, I'm alive. thanks for reviewing.)

**Solyeuse **(Ouch, that's a lot of mistakes. Oh the ingrat thing, I figured Fantina couldn't say it well in angry French. It was suppose to be like that. Thanks for reviewing.)

**yuna the witch** (Oh, those two will be a couple. I'm just having trouble putting romance in stories. Not really my thing, but I'm doing my best. Thanks for reviewing.)

**WildCroconaw**

**Hoshi **(Hahaha, drunken Alex made me laugh too. glad to hear from you again. Thanks for reviewing.)

**PeachyKeenx088**

**Jarkes**

**Banana **(all right! Another fan of Assassin. Thanks for reviewing and hope you keep doing so.)

…

That's it from me. By the way, something special is coming up in about two weeks. Can you guess what it is? Starts with a 'B'. XP

See you in the next chapter.

**-JapanDreamer**


	61. Start of a Contest and Something Else

**Disclaimer: If I owned Pokemon, I would have put my fanfic into an anime. But sadly, I don't.**

DUN! DUN! DUN! It is the day of the Contest!

First off, I would like to mention and apologize about this special day I kept mentioning in the previous chapters. This special day was my birthday :D However, I couldn't write this chapter fast enough to do a special update so I apologize for misleading you.

Instead, we shall celebrate something else – **HAPPY 900+ REVIEWS!** Woo! Only less than 100 more to go for a thousand! Lol.

This chapter is very, very, very long, and guess what? After so many chapters, I finally have reviewers' OCS!

Due to previous problems and confusion, I'll list all of the OCs here. Of course, most are from people who posted them up a long time ago so I apologize to those who waited for so long for their OCs to appear. Not all of these OCs appear but they are definitely mentioned. So all (including mine) are here and are in no particular order.

Percy, (Yuma) Yummy, Assassin, Leo, and Ven – **JapanDreamer**

Tory (only mentioned) – **Ketchum Kid**

Brianna and Carson – **BuzzingBumbleBri**

Ashe – **SagaAuraMana**

Fuuta **- Sparky**

**Chapter 58:**

Lucas was in a very awkward position. His back was against the cool stone wall, which normal and fine. The only problem was that he had several foot long blades stuck to his shirt and the sides of his pants so that he couldn't move at all. At the same time, a little, about five years old, messy blond hair kid with a yellow t-shirt and short black pant was trying to pull the claws off of Lucas' shirt. On top of the kid's head was a pair of pointy yellow ears with the tips black.

"So what did you do again to make her so mad again?" the little kid asked, still trying to pull and even had his feet against the wall. "Ohhhh, its stuck!" This was starting to become a funny attraction as more and more lookers watched with laughter.

"I asked Assassin if she wanted to join our party," Lucas said, feeling depressed. "Yummy even told me that Assassin's favorite game was Spin the Bottle. When I told Assassin that we had that game, she got all mad and then… well, here we are now…" Lucas' brand new idea was to get everybody together and have some fun activity. So far, only Percy, the little rosy cheek boy in front of him, agreed to this. Percy, the little Pichu PM, was probably the only person who actually looked up to Lucas.

"What is Spin the Bottle?" Percy asked in his innocent voice. Lucas shrugged, trying to remember what Yummy said about the game.

"Yummy said that Spin the Bottle is a game where everyone spins the bottle and try to guess who it will land to next. Whoever is right gets a point."

"Yummy said Assassin likes that game?" Lucas nodded and shrugged his shoulder. Both tried to contemplate why such a easy game would make Assassin almost want to kill Lucas.

"Maybe because she has to see?" Percy said who looked confused. "She gets mad about that. She even broke her blade fingers just to make sure you stay put…"

"Oh that's right," Lucas said, as though he realized it, "I forgot she can't… errr," Lucas looked around to make sure Assassin wasn't around. "See. I wonder why Yummy said it was her favorite game…"

"How do you keep forgetting?" Lucas thought daze like for a moment before responding.

"I dunno," Lucas shrugged, "She keeps walking around normally, I guess. Plus, she never complains about it." Percy finally got all of the blades off and dropped them to the floor. "So," Lucas said, "What are you doing here? I thought you have an appointment with Doctor Aria. You have to watch your health." Aria was the Milotic PM who introduced Lucas as Assassin's partner and always gave advices when Lucas was having problem – especially with Assassin's blades.

"I'm fine. I told the doctor I'm fine today," Percy said happily, "And… I… wanted to go see my dad…" Percy said this in a child scared like voice. Percy's mother was ill when giving birth. Percy's father, with many difficulties, had his wife taken to the Galactic Hospital. The mother died soon after giving birth. However, for payment for helping, Team Galactic took Percy for PM research. He managed to live after many weeks of sickness and was rescued. However, the relationship between Percy and father was gone.

Every day, Percy wanted to see his father. Every time Percy tried to visit at the 'non-PM' area, his father would shut the doors or make excuses. There were even times when his father would shout – "I HAVE NO SON! GO AWAY YOU STUPID FREAK!"

Doctor Aria was so frustrated with Percy's father. She even went to him and had quite a bit of a shouting war that shook the place. Aria tried to explain to Percy's father that his son was very ill and might not have long to live and couldn't he see his son for once and not treat him as a monster? Percy's father replied back angrily that Percy was and is a monster. There was nothing Aria could do to change that. His son had died a long time ago and the dead shouldn't be spoken of.

Lucas remembered when he first met Percy in the doctor room – coughing, bleeding from the mouth and crying to sleep because his father refused to see him again and again. It was here that the two both bonded. Percy looked up to Lucas as a big brother and both became good friends.

"He'll definitely come this time since you're healthy! He might want to surprise you too!" Lucas said happily. Lucas was one of the very few people who didn't give up hope for Percy. In fact, Lucas even visited the lonely man but the guy didn't respond to him most of time. Every time, Lucas brought up Percy's name, the man would leave and shout at Lucas to never bring up the name again.

Percy's face brightened at the idea of his father definitely coming today and gabbled excitedly how he wanted to show his father the new picture he drew last night. Both immediately started discussing ideas of making it look like a part. Lucas and Percy had been researching in books and noticed that most parties came with balloons and cake. Of course, they didn't either one of those, but Percy suggested they could draw balloons and tape them to the wall. They were going on about how to bake a cake (the possible need to steal ingredients) when the alarm sounded – the sound of being under attack.

"What's going on?" Percy asked scared as people started to rush out. Lucas found himself backed into the wall as more people tried to shove him out of their way.

The whole room suddenly swirled and time to somehow speed up. Now Lucas found himself being pushed against the wall again by Assassin. Her dead eyes seemed to pierce through him.

_"Leo is dead!" Assassin yelled at Lucas, "And he is never coming back!"_

…

Lucas woke up in cold sweat and gasped for air as he found himself, not pushed against the wall but in the comfort of his bed. Damion was snoring loudly next to him. It was painful – the memories were getting worse. Lucas sank back down, listening as the night slowly turned to day. For once, he wished he could slowly disappear, wishing he would never dream again.

…

It was dark outside with very few people out wandering around at three in the morning. Cynthia rubbed her eyes as she reread the portfolio. Her long soft blond hair seemed to be limp from sheer exhaustion. She had not slept for almost 24 hours and there were still papers to go over. What would she give for a nice soft bed…

Cynthia was at Eterna City's hotel. The room was small and cozy for one person – the bed was untouched. The Sinnoh Pokemon Champion was now reading the letter from Galactic Enterprises excuses that happened in Eterna. From what Cynthia could read, it was a load of stupid excuses. However, the chairman did say that they still don't have enough to pin the blame on the company. So Cynthia decided to investigate more on her own spare time. Cynthia crumpled the piece of paper and threw it over her head. Of course, Gardenia, the Gym Leader of Eterna, offered her help as well, but knowing how Gardenia was pretty unreliable and the fact that she had a job to run her own gym…

Cynthia was awoken from her dozing dream by the sound of a telephone ring from the phone next to her. "Hello?" Cynthia groaned, her voice feeling sore from the lack of use.

"Cynthia," the chairman said from the other line, "How many times do I have to tell you? Go to sleep."

"Look who's talking," Cynthia sighed and looked around in the hotel room in hopes of finding some tea bags. Nothing… "Why are you calling me up so early?"

"Um, someone sent us papers that appeared to be related to… Alex, you know that boy." Cynthia's sleepiness immediately disappeared.

"Who?"

"Umm, he said he knows you. Met you at the Pokemon Contest in Floaroma," the chairman said. Now, Cynthia was puzzled. She could imagine the chairman expressing his confusion as well as he scratched his curly hair.

"Anyways, he's asking for a bit of help… He needs to get something done but need our research and information to search for someone."

"How does our information help him?" Cynthia asked, confused. "And who is this person he is looking for?"

"I really don't know. He won't say anything until he meets you," the chairman said, "But the papers look legitimate so I'll send him over at eight if that's okay with you."

"Morning?" Cynthia said in a tired tone. She wasn't really sure about this, but if the chairman said it was okay, then… "Sure no problem. See you tomorrow." With that Cynthia hung up the phone and flop onto the bed. So much stuff was swirling around in her head that she was having trouble to sleep. However, slowly, she managed to fall asleep.

…

Dawn woke up from the sound of her mother who was shaking her awake. "Dawn, wake up! The contest is today!" Dawn groaned and slowly got up. Her messy black hair fell over her face. She rubbed her eyes and looked out to see the sunny sky through the window – a perfect day for the contest. Damion came in the room and was already dressed and prepared.

"You finally woke up," Damion smirked. In his hand, he was holding Dawn's Pokemon egg that she received from Rad in Eterna City. Dawn was so tired last night to take care of it that Johanna and Damion volunteered to help.

"Shut up," Dawn said, not in the mood for jokes, "I was up all night figuring out moves." Dawn grabbed her clothes next to her sleeping mat and noticed that Lucas' bed was neatly made and he was nowhere to be seen. "Where is Lucas?"

"Oh," Johanna said, getting up, "Lucas had some business to attend to."

"Business?" Dawn looked at Damion who merely shrugged in confusion. "Are you sure?"

"Yes," Johanna said, "He had something to do that needed to be done before the Contest start. Speaking of which, you need to get ready for the contest." Dawn looked at the clock and realized how late she had slept. All that training yesterday worn her out.

"Shoot!" Dawn hurried to the bathroom to get ready. The sound of the faucet water running can be heard and a lot of crashing sounds.

"Really," Johanna sighed as she started to gather all the blankets and pillows to be put away. "I have always wondered how she managed it without me. I'll get breakfast ready. I've finally figured out how to use the toaster Damion so why don't you just-." Johanna looked around and saw that Damion has suddenly disappeared. "Oh, now that boy disappeared. Seriously, why would he leave without breakfast?"

…

Lucas was nervously looking around in the small urban like city. It was the day of the Contest and everyone was excited. There were more people than usual walking around, getting ready. Shops put up signs that said they will close early for the Contest. Many apartments were filled with flowers on the balcony – quite a few flower petals were falling down from above like snow. The morning was kind of chilly and Lucas was grateful for his blue jacket.

Close to the Contest Hall, there were hundreds of Pokemon coordinators gabbling excitedly and showing off their Pokemon and appeals. The whole grass lawn was dotted with Pokemon and people. Lucas could feel his stomach wring with nervousness at the sight. Most of the appeals were beautiful and creative. These coordinators looked well prepare. If Lucas was nervous than who knows what Dawn was feeling.

Still, that was why Lucas was out here. He was going to make sure he bought a good luck charm for Dawn so that she'll be confident. Lucas figured that a good luck charm would be the perfect gift. Unfortunately, none of the stores sold what he really wanted and there were too many coordinators and spectators buying things.

"Lucas! LUCAS!" Lucas turned around and saw a cheerful blond hair guy with a white cap on his head. "It's me VEN!"

"Oh!" Lucas said, realizing who it was, "hi Ven." Ven caught up with Lucas and tried to catch his breath before speaking again.

"What are you doing out here?" Ven asked. "The Contest doesn't start for another hour or two."

"Ummm," Lucas looked around, feeling nervous. "I was looking for something."

"What kind of something?" Ven asked, now feeling interested as well. Lucas looked around as though he was expecting someone from the crowd to answer his question. Instead, Lucas' stomach started to grumble very loud in reply. Ven immediately laughed kindheartedly. "Why don't we get something to eat first? Most of us before competition can't eat and tend to get hungry quickly."

"That's it!" Lucas said, realizing something.

"What's it?" Ven asked, looking surprised at Lucas' sudden enthusiasm.

"Ven," Lucas said, ignoring Ven's question, "Do you know any place where we can cook Poffins?"

"Uhhh," Ven said, confused, "I was thinking of going to a restaurant or to a fast food restaurant but if you insist…" Ven got the Hearthome City guidebook and turned to the index before turning to the right page. "There is a place called the Poffin House that's not too far from here. I think it issss… hmmm… over there!" Ven pointed to the left and Lucas immediately rushed there. "Hey wait up!"

Lucas ran as fast as his legs could and had to stop quickly from exhaustion. Ven, on the other hand, flew across the road as though he was flying. He did a couple of twist and turns as he gracefully avoided the crowd of people. Soon, it was Ven that was in the lead and not Lucas.

"Oh! This is where you want to go!" Ven grinned, pointing to the building in front of them. It was a small cozy cottage like gingerbread house. The bakery smells coming from inside was heavenly flavor and made both of the boys' mouths watered. A small simple wooden sign on the front read "The Poffin House." Strangely, there weren't a lot of people here. "We should have gone here yesterday. Do you have business here or something?"

"Sort of," Lucas said drowsy. He felt lightheaded from all of that running.

"You don't look so good," Ven said. He didn't even break a sweat from all the running. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Lucas sighed and without further ado, Ven grabbed Lucas by the arm and dragged him in the house.

"Oh! Why hello!" A motherly woman with her hair tied up in a bun looked surprise as she was cleaning the floor with a broom. "I'm the owner of this store. Are you here to make Poffins?" The room was partially full, mostly elderly folks. They were all dumping berries into the pot and stirring with care. The smell of the Poffins were even stronger inside the house.

"Yup!" Ven said grinning, "We're here to learn from the best!"

"Oh don't be silly," the woman chuckle but couldn't help but blush from the praise, "I'm simply here to help out if need be." She pointed to a table where there was a cooking stove and a pot on top. "If you have berries, you can start cooking."

Ven didn't have time to respond and say that they didn't have berries, for Lucas immediately rushed over to the stove and took out his Pokeball. There was a flash of light and Munchlax appeared. The dopy looking Pokemon scratched its ears but at the smell of the Poffins cooking, immediately perked up and opened its drooling mouth with hunger. Lucas bent down to the small Pokemon and whispered something in its ears. The Pokemon immediately patted its fur and to Ven's surprise, berries started appearing out of it – Cheri, Chesto, Pecha, Rawst… the list go on and on. So many berries were being thrown out and rolled around the ground.

"Wow," Ven grinned as he picked up a Pecha berry. "Your Munchlax knows Pickup right? That's why it can carry so much stuff."

"Really? I noticed that Munchlax loved to hide stuff, mostly food, in its fur" Lucas said surprised, "What is Pickup anyways?"

"It's the ability to 'pickup' free items," Ven said, looking surprise at Lucas' surprise face. "You didn't know?" Lucas shrugged but immediately realized that he needed to work fast if he wanted to get ready before the contest. He immediately started to search through the pile of berries.

"It'll be faster if I help!" Ven said, "Come on, what type of berries you need?" Immediately, the two started to work together. Lucas took off his blue jacket and red beret and put on an apron and chef hat. Ven started to juggle the berries that Lucas needed and helped Munchlax put the unneeded berries into its fur. Ven then started to help washing the berries and used the knife to cut the berries (Lucas tried to help out with the cutting but almost sliced off his own hand in doing so).

"Is this for your friend who was going to sign up for the Contest?" Ven asked as he started dicing up the berries. Lucas nodded as he dumped the Figy Berry into the pot. He immediately started to stir while the liquid started to bubble quickly.

"Her name is Dawn," Lucas said, "This will be her second Contest and I want to help her as much as I can."

"Great," Ven said, "She is going to love these Poffins! And we still have time to spare to make it to the Contest."

"Oh, I have something else to make besides Poffins," Lucas said quickly. The room was making him relaxed now. He felt at home working here.

"Huh?" Ven said, not getting what Lucas was saying. Moving as quickly as he can, Lucas asked the owner of the store a question and she nodded in consent and pointed to the drawers on from the kitchen counter. Lucas rushed back and started to open one of the kitchen drawers. He took out a large bowl, a whisk, a bag of white flour, eggs, and other cooking ingredients.

"Normally, I would ask," Ven said as he watched Lucas try to do two things at once, "But I definitely way more interested in guessing... AH! Don't burn yourself!" Lucas didn't respond and continued to cook. He wanted this to be perfect for Dawn. Time was ticking and he couldn't afford to make mistakes, not a single one.

…

"Where is that guy?" Damion said, looking at the large clock in the Contest hall. After escaping a hazard breakfast, Damion, Dawn, and Johanna left for the contest, but it was almost time and Lucas was nowhere to be seen. All around Damion, Contest preparation was moving at full blast. Coordinators were dressing up – guys were straightening their ties while girls put on their last minute makeup. There were so many Pokemon here as well, Damion was surprise that they could even manage hold this many people. Security was obviously tighter than usual. There were so many guards that even the bathroom required a security check. All coordinators must have their Coordinator Pass and a pass for Hearthome Contest. That was just the contenders and security; there were also spectators as well. Damion was surprise to see that most of them were from other cities of Sinnoh. Damion could suddenly understand why the Contest building was huge. So many people were coming to watch that it was impossible to have it built normal size.

As Damion continued to pace across the carpet, he wondered how Dawn was doing. She and her mom were both in the dressing room, preparing. Both told him to keep a lookout for Lucas and to notify them when he came. Again, the same question went through Damion's head – Where was that guy?

…

"Dawn, hold still," Johanna said as she continued to brush Dawn's hair. Dawn tried to sit lady like as she watched her reflection get her hair done by her mom. Her mom managed to have Dawn's hair twisted into a nice ponytail. Her bangs were down and were clipped with a large yellow star on each side. She was wearing a pink dress with a white collar and short puffy sleeves. She had a red and a yellow sash tied around her waist. To Dawn, this outfit was a bit kiddy but her mother thought it was cute. There was no way Dawn was going to start arguing with her mother.

They managed to find their own dressing place and Johanna worked her magic to fix Dawn's makeup and hair. Dawn noticed through the mirror that there were a lot of coordinators taking side glances of her. She couldn't help but feel that Johanna was attracting more attention than the contest itself. After all, the famous former winner of the Grand Festival here with her daughter was definitely a sight to see.

The coordinators ogling was not making Dawn feeling any better. These people knew her mom was famous so they obviously had a lot of experience in Contests. Johanna had told her that there were even coordinators from Kanto, Johto, and Hoenn region here. The thought of so many exemplary coordinators in one place to compete for the one ribbon was enough to make anyone feel queasy.

"Okay, we are done!" Johanna sighed happily as she looked at Dawn's reflection. "You look so beautiful! This remind me of the time when I competed in the Contest."

"Mom, please," Dawn whispered, feeling everybody's eyes upon her, "You're embarrassing me!"

"Don't worry about it," Johanna whispered as she started to clean up the area. "You'll do just fine. Remember to have confidence. That way, your Pokemon will also have confidence." Johanna packed up the pink makeup kit and gave Dawn a quick kiss on the head. "I have to go now but remember, I'm always proud of you."

"Yes mom," Dawn said, feeling the queasiness in her stomach start to tighten a bit. "I know." With that Johanna left and Dawn sighed with apprehension.

"Say, is Johanna your mom?" Dawn looked up and saw a girl with black hair with a very nice purple streak. Dawn was guessing that the girl was the same age as her but she seemed to be incredibly short for a fourteen year old (about four feet and six inches). She was definitely dressed way more stylish. The girl had a purple dress that stopped at the mid thigh and gray leggings with black converse. She also had a short black teenager stylish jacket. Her large caramel colored eyes peered curiously at Dawn.

"Oh yes, she is," Dawn muttered, feeling more embarrassed.

"I thought so," the girl smiled, "There was a distinct liking between the two of you."

"Really," Dawn muttered, not sure what to say. The girl, however, didn't seem to be done yet.

"I'm Brianna Sakura, but most people call me 'Bri'," the girl said kindly and held out her hand. "I came from Pallet Town in the Kanto region."

"Really?" Dawn said surprised, "You came all the way to Sinnoh to compete?"

"Of course," Bri snorted with laughter, "Competing in one region every time can be very boring. I love traveling around and actually encounter strong opponents. The coordinator noticed that Dawn was looking slightly pale and seemed to be going through the phase of nervousness. "Nervous?"

Dawn nodded. "This is going to be my second Contest…"

"Whoa, then you got some serious competition today," Bri said, her caramel eyes widen with surprise. She immediately got a small pocket book from her bag and opened to a certain page. "50 percent of the coordinators here are from Sinnoh, twenty from Hoenn, and 15 percent each from Kanto and Johto. Of those coordinators about 75 percent are female.

"Although, Sinnoh coordinators are participating, the ones you should be worried about are from everywhere else. Most of the coordinators from the other regions are exceptionally good (most make it to the Grande Festival) and specifically joined Hearthome Contest due to the prestigious background and the fact Fantina (one of the most famous coordinators) will be judging the contest.

"Did you know," Bri continued to read after turning a page, "Fantina was the first female Pokemon Gym Leader to become a coordinator as well? Wallace, the former Gym Leader from Hoenn, was the first. Fantina always compete in Contests when possible and judges in almost every Hearthome Pokemon Contest. Some say that she particularly loves Ghost Pokemon appeals."

"That's… that's nice," Dawn said weakly. Bri was definitely book smart but if she was thinking that this was the best method to calm nerves, she was sorely mistaken. Right now, Dawn was on the verge of wanting to sink to the floor and disappear.

"BRI!" The girl flinched at the sound of her name and Dawn was grateful that she stopped. Bri and Dawn looked around to see a boy with tanned skin and curly jet black hair. He had a blue and white stripped long sleeve shirt and dark blue jeans. His eyes, unlike Bri, were cold and sharp like needles of ice. However, he didn't sound like a very cold guy, just the opposite. His voice was loud and even blunt sounding. "Bri! I need to tell you something! I'm tired of being continuously interrupted."

"Ummm, okay," Bri said, looking a bit confused but smiled all the same as the boy stopped in front of her. "Dawn this is Carson. Carson this is Dawn. I met Carson a while back in Kanto and he insisted he wanted to come and see me perform."

"Hi," Dawn said. Carson barely gave a glance at Dawn and instead knelt in front of Bri and took her hand. Dawn clapped her hands to her mouth from surprise. No way! Bri, obviously oblivious of the situation in front of her, looked down at Carson and said, "Carson, I know I'm short, but it is easier for me to talk to you if you were standing up."

"Brianna," Carson said. Bri fell silent – nobody called her Brianna unless they meant business. "I really wanted to tell you this ever since we first met and I've been having a hard time telling you until now." Bri looked surprise and everybody in the room started to giggle and watch with extreme amusement. Carson turned a bit red but he definitely looked determine to say what he wanted."I - I really li-like -!"

"Ookay everyone!" the speaker announced. "The Contest starts in ten minutes! I repeat ten minutes! All coordinators, please go to the waiting room and we'll call you over the system when it is your turn!" There was an immediate squeal of panic and all of the coordinators started to rush and finish up before trying to cram through the door and out of the room.

"Carson!" Bri said as someone came really close to stampeding all over Carson, "Would you wait a bit before you tell me whatever it is you want to tell me? I have to go! It was nice meeting you Dawn and I'll see you later." Before Carson could reply, Bri left, leaving a sad looking guy on his knees and his hands empty.

"Don't worry," Dawn said kindly as she got up and helped the stunned boy to his feet. "It must have been really hard trying to tell her your feelings."

"It's not hard to confess," Carson muttered, looking depressed, "It is the fact that someone keeps interrupting me. You know how many times I tried? It's like someone hates me…" With that Carson moodily left the room. Dawn sighed and immediately felt depressed and worry. Still it was so romantic how Carson was determined to tell Bri how he felt.

Dawn wished she had Carson's confidence because right now, she was starting to feel sick from nervousness.

…

"Keira!" Fantina called out, swishing her long purple dress. She was in the back room where all the judges and technician workers waited before the Contest began. Throughout the whole day, Fantina has been having pictures taken by the press but after the contest was about to start, she noticed that Keira had disappeared. Fantina tried looking in the restroom and spotted Keria, kneeling down and looking under the sink. "Keira! What are vou doing?"

"Fantina," Keira said, a bit shocked but looked worried, "I can't find my Buneary!"

"Again?" Fantina sighed, "Buneary seemed to be wandering off more often zan usual."

"I know," Keira muttered. Buneary was definitely not in the restroom. "I was hoping it would stay put, especially on such an important day." Fantina frowned and then took out her Poke ball to reveal her Gengar.

"Gengar," Fantina said, "Look for Keira's Buneary but make sure you don't scare anyone." Gengar frowned at the last part of the instruction but saluted before fading into the background. "Okay, Gengar vill take care of finding Buneary. Meanwhile, we need to get to stage!" Before Keira could protest, Fantina dragged the poor lady out and toward backstage of the Contest area. "Showtime!"

…

It was just five minutes before the Contest really started and Damion was now in a frenzy panic attack. People were starting to move in hordes and the main hall was starting to become was about to start running around now, when the doors opened, and in came the person he was preparing to scream at.

"WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?" Damion yelled at poor Lucas.

"Sorry," Lucas said. His ears were ringing and his head echoed with Damion's screaming voice. "I've been busy."

"Busy? With what?" Damion asked and that was when he noticed Lucas carrying one small box and one large cake box. "You went to buy food?"

"Actually, Lucas baked the food." Damion looked up to see that it was a blond hair kid who chimed in. "So where is this Dawn?"

"Who are you?" Damion asked rudely.

"Oh sorry," Ven said, grinning, "I'm Ven. I met Lucas yesterday." Damion glared at the happy kid with suspicion. "Don't worry about me! I'm here for the contest!" Ven gave Lucas a playful shove and then left with the spectators to enjoy the Contest.

"So why were you so busy baking food?" Damion asked suspiciously.

"It's for Dawn," Lucas said brightly. Slowly, but surely, Damion's face started to turn redder and redder. Lucas, on the other hand, simply stared back confusingly. Was Damion angry because he didn't get something as well? "You know, for her to eat! She should be hungry with all that nervousness."

"Oi, Lucas," Damion said, "You do realize girls hate getting food from guys right? They consider it a huge offense because they think worry about their weight 24/7."

"Really?" Lucas couldn't believe that he made another stupid mistake. He sighed and looked very depressed now. "I worked so hard on this…" Damion realized how depressed Lucas was and was feeling uncomfortable by the negative vibes.

"Butttt," Damion grumbled, "I suppose she'll be in a good enough mood to eat something…" He grabbed the sad Lucas to the coordinator waiting room. "Come on, let's get this over with."

The two left and a curious trainer popped out from behind the pillar he was hiding behind and watched Damion drag Lucas away. The stranger wore denim pants and a large wool hooded checked coat that went down to his knees and had dark boots. On his head was a pair of red headphones.

"Well now," Fuuta said, smiling as he recalled the Floaroma Contest competition he had participated in. His brown eyes suddenly turned electric blue and his dusty dark brownish gold hair started to float as though a huge gust of wind surrounded him. In Fuuta's hand, a Poke ball was slowly rising into the air, encased with a blue light. "It has definitely been a while Lucas."

Fuuta suddenly saw the door leading to the auditorium of the Contest slam open and saw a young teenager come flying out. The moment Fuuta and the kid crossed path, Fuuta felt a jolt of shock from his body. Fuuta turned his head around so fast that his neck cricked. However, the kid was already gone and out the door. Fuuta frowned and shivered. _What was that feeling just now?_

…

Ven was rushing out of the Contest hall because he forgot his wallet back in the Poffin House. He realized it after he decided to buy some popcorn from the concession stand. Ven wished Lucas could've just made more food for him to eat but Lucas insisted that he only had time to make enough for Dawn.

"Got to move quick, got to move quick," Ven muttered as he flew out of the doors. Outside, there were still street markets selling goods and stuff and the big screen was put on top of the Contest hall for spectators who wanted to have a close up view of the Contest. Ven ignored and swiftly ran past these bystanders. Slowly the crowd started to become sparser to the point that when Ven turned onto another street, there was not a single person there.

"Okay good," Ven sighed, noticing the Poffin House was still open. "I still got enough time to make-."

"HEY! LEAVE ME ALONE!" Ven paused and noticed a ten year old tanned girl with short dark brown hair came running toward him. She had a hair clip, decorated with three colorful hairclip, on the left side of her hair and dark brown eyes that were wide with fear. She was wearing a short navy blue jacket over her sky blue shirt along with brown pants and white shoes. The locket on her chest was bouncing up and down in rhythm with her steps.

Ven noticed that there were several (at least three) strange turquoise bowl cut hair spacesuit people following the little girl. The pursuers seemed to be running in a strange unison way as though they were in the army. The girl noticed Ven in front of her and immediately ran to hide behind him.

"Little girl!" One of the space looking man said in a robotic tone, "Come back here at once."

"My name is Ashe!" the girl cried, "Not 'Little girl'!"

"Woah, calm down," Ven said, trying to figure out what was going on, "Can we solve this a bit more peacefully?"

"NO!" Ashe said angrily and pointed to the robot pursuers, "These people are trying to kidnap me!" Ven widened his eyes and cocked his head to the turquoise hair people. He noticed that there was a strange yellow 'G' symbol on their space uniform.

"Is this true?" Ven asked curiously at the guys.

"This has nothing to do with you," the man replied, "Either give me the girl or we'll take her by force." Ven stared at the guy's dull eyes and started to wonder if this guy was even human. The other guys were starting to take out Poke balls. The Ashe girl shivered and huddled closer to Ven.

"Um, you know what? I don't work well with this "either/or" situation," Ven said smiling, casually reaching his hand to his belt, "Instead, why don't we try my suggestion?" Before the others could respond, Ven threw out a Poke ball at the guys. A large Pigeot appeared. "Pigeot! Time to bid our guests good bye! Twister!"

The large bird spread out and flapped its wings to create a very small but deadly tornado. Immediately, the dust started to kick up and the gang of kidnappers started to fly in the air and thrown so far away that they turned to tiny specks against the blue sky.

"Well now," Ven smiled, "I guess that took care of that -."

"KYAAAAA!" the girl screamed really loud and took Ven by surprise, "A Pigeot!" The girl quickly ran to Pigeot and hugged the confused Pokemon. "It is sooooo cute!"

"Oh thanks," Ven said, glad that someone appreciated flying Pokemon. The girl continued to hug and didn't say anything, so Ven decided to break the silence. "So, Ashe, why did those guys go after you?"

"Ummm, I don't know," Ashe said softly, "They suddenly came up to me and demanded that I follow them…." Ashe paused as though trying to remember something. "They did say something about legendary Pokemon though…"

"Legendary Pokemon?" Ven said slowly, looking more concern than surprise. "Hmm, that is very weird. They're definitely going to come after you again so maybe we need to take you to somewhere safe."

"Safe?" Ashe said, suddenly turning really shy, "Where?"

"Don't know," Ven said as he rubbed his head and fiddled with his hat, "But I'm getting a bad feeling that something dangerous is going to happen…"

…

"There are so many people," Bri said as she looked around with her caramel eyes, "The chances of me winning are probably thirty percent – giver or take a few… Though there were some talks about a really strong Hoenn Grand Festival winner here so maybe twenty?" Dawn was sitting next to and listening to Bri on one of the squashy armchairs. Bri was trying to calm herself down by saying statistical numbers but that caused Dawn to panic even more. Bri was obviously more experienced and if Bri's chances were low, then Dawn's were definitely even lower. "You know," Bri said changing the topic, "Carson was acting really weird today – about sixty percent more unusual."

"Well, he had something important to say to you right?" Dawn said, relieved that Bri (in her strange way) decided to talk about something else. "It must be coming from the bottom of his heart."

"Hmmm… OH!" Bri thought and then smacked her fist to the palm of her hand as though she realized something, "I bet he discovered somebody's secret and couldn't wait to tell me. He is horrible when it comes to keeping secrets. One time, he blabbed about a crush my friend Amy had – to her crush!"

_Except his…_ Dawn thought sadly at Bri who looked happy at her sudden revelation about her friend and who started to wonder on the possible ideas she could talk about.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN I CAN'T COME IN?" Shouting came from outside the waiting room and was getting louder by the second.

"Who is that?" Bri wondered out loud and looked curious. Dawn immediately groaned. She knew that yell from anywhere.

"Oh so that's how it is huh?" the voice continued as though he wanted to fight. Before the voice could say anything else, Dawn hurried to the door and found Damion trying to start a fight with the security guard. "Oh, Dawn!" Damion said, noticing the flustered coordinator. Dawn grabbed Damion by the ear and dragged him away from the security guard. "Ow, ow, ow!"

"Damion!" Dawn hissed, "What are you doing here? You're supposed to be in the auditorium!"

"Well," Damion shrugged, looking embarrassed, "Lucas really wanted to see you."

"Lucas?" Dawn said surprised. Lucas peered like a five year old behind Damion.

"H-hi Dawn," Lucas said, acting very flustered, "Can I give you something?" Dawn looked surprise but nodded and noticed an empty dressing room's door slightly jarred open. She grabbed Lucas' arm and pulled him inside. Damion was about to follow but Dawn gave an evil glare and slammed the door right in front of him.

"Hey!" Damion protested but Dawn refused to open the door.

"So, Dawn said in a lady like fashion before turning to Lucas, "You were obviously busy to do something for me. What is it you have?" Lucas fumbled and first handed the smaller of the two boxes to Dawn. Curiously, she opened it and saw small round…

"Poffins!" Lucas smiled, "They'll help your Pokemon to look beautiful!"

"Aww, thanks Lucas," Dawn said, feeling really touched. She took one of them and saw that they were carefully made. Lucas had obviously putted a lot of effort to make these. She placed the Poffin box to the side. "And what is that?" Lucas grinned and placed the larger box onto a small table. He opened it and Dawn peered inside to see a round cream pie. It was about a foot in diameter and there was whip cream on the border of the pie as decoration.

"Ummm, thanks Lucas but I think it is best if my Pokemon don't eat something this sweet along with Poffins."

"It's not for them," Lucas said, looking frantically for a plate, a fork, and knife, "It's for you."

"What?" Dawn said surprised.

"I know how nervous you must feel just before the Contest," Lucas said, "So I wanted to help you not to feel so scared. I learned that food really helps." He found a small plastic knife in his pocket and Dawn found a plate and fork from the dressing room. "So," Lucas said this while cutting a slice of pie for Dawn, "I wanted to let you have something to eat. Food is only good when you have someone to share it with." Lucas handed the small lice to Dawn who took it slowly and carefully took a small bite of it.

"This is my good luck charm to you." Dawn smiled in relaxation. All the tension she had earlier was gone. Instead, she felt confident and determine to win. In no time at all, Dawn finished the piece of pie and placed the plate down.

"Thank you so much Lucas. I feel a lot better now." Lucas grinned and blushed with happiness but before he could say anything. Dawn grabbed him gently by the arm and pressed her lips against his cheek – a small but sweet kiss. "And this is my thank you present to you."

Dawn left with the Poffin box and opened the dressing room. Damion, who was still waiting outside, opened his mouth to speak but Dawn didn't say anything and hurried back into the waiting room. Damion rushed inside and saw Lucas, frozen to his spot and an eaten pie next to him.

"HEY!" Damion said, shaking the dazed Lucas, "What happened?" Lucas's eyes slowly widen as though his brain was finally processing what was going on and then his face turned really red from blushing.

"Hey! Did she kiss you? Tell me she didn't!"

**Author's Notes**

I thought about continuing after this, but the romance felt like a nice stop for now (Plus I'm tired of writing). Lol.

Anyways, I'm going to have a poll or two up and **I really need your opinions**. I've noticed that this story is super long and will definitely be a lot longer in the future. Therefore, I want to ask if you think I should wrap it all up and make a conclusion. Also, I want your opinion on longer chapters. Do you prefer those or do you prefer shorter chapters?

Next, who've seen the pictures of the new BW anime? I must say Iris has the strangest backpack/hair I've ever seen. Lol.

And how about Team Plasma from the new BW game? I must say, people must have a very strange sense of fashion these days. XP

Okay, that's it from me. Let's thank my reviewers.

…

**dark5523**

**Jarkes**

**SagaAuraMana**

**Furryfur**

**hydro-serpent58**

**shiny evee4**

**Assassin42**

**Solyeuse **(Yes, you are correct! Unfortunately, I couldn't tell you that when it really was my birthday…. Battles literally fry my brain because I have to imagine the battle scene in my head and then put it into words. It's mind boggling. XO Thanks for pointing out the mistakes and for the review.)

**Sparky**

**The DL of Sith**

**Banana** (Okay good, you remember Leo. I'm starting to get worry with so many different OCs out there, people will easily forget. Thanks for reviewing.)

**Pikana**

**RWT**

**Wild Croconaw**

**gg121** (thanks for the review!)

**OC for PaDTT** (I'm sorry, but are you Yuuki reborn10? Your OC's name is so similar to hers. If not, I apologize.)

**Yuuki reborn10**

**dialga's Song of time**

…

Okay that's it from me.

See you in the next chapter.

**-JapanDreamer**


	62. Buneary's New Name

**Disclaimer: As the author of this story, I would like to tell you that the rumor that I own Pokemon is false.**

Hey guys! Another update and this time we're starting to get into the Contest. WOOO!

Even better, this chapter is extremely long and has lots of humor and excitement (at least I hope).

Also for those who do not know yet, I have school at this time so updates will be slow.

Enjoy!

**Chapter 59:**

Cynthia was sitting at the patio outside of the Eterna City's Hotel. It was a very nice place – many plants dotted the area to make it look like a garden. The Sinnoh's Champion was sitting on a very nice Italian chair and was drinking coffee from a teacup that was on a saucer and given to her by a waiter. She checked the clock that hung on one of the white marble pillars. The Eterna's Gym Leader, Gardenia, was supposed to come over, but knowing her, Cynthia wouldn't be surprised if Gardenia was late. Both of them were suppose to wait for the chairman to bring the mysterious person who claimed to have important information they needed.

"Cynthia!" Cynthia jerked up from the sound of her name and looked around. She saw Gardenia rushing towards her down the rocky path. Gardenia's short brown hair was a bit messy and her forest color clothing seemed to be hastily put on. On the Gym Leader's shoulder was her cherry Pokemon Cherubi, who was fast asleep. When she arrived to where Cynthia was standing, Gardenia panted and tried to catch her breath. "Sorry, I'm late. I lost track of time."

"It's okay," Cynthia smiled and motioned Gardenia to sit with her on the opposite side, "Those two haven't showed up yet." Gardenia sighed with relief and laughed nervously as she sat down. The waiter immediately brought over a cup of coffee to Gardenia, bowed, and left as quickly as he had come.

"So what is it that is so important for me to be here as well?" Gardenia tried to drink the coffee as composed as Cynthia but managed to spill some of the drink onto the small round table. "Oh shoot…" Gardenia tried to wipe of the spill as fast as possible.

"The information pertains to the incident a couple of days ago," Cynthia explained, ignoring Gardenia's clumsy self, and continued to sip the coffee. "I figure you would want to hear about it as well since it is part of your job to look over the city."

"Oh yeah, that's right," Gardenia gave a weak grin and immediately sighed as though depressed, "I'm still having a hard time getting things under control. I've been getting hate mail almost every day. Sometimes I wonder if I'm cut out for this…"

"Don't worry," Cynthia said, smiling kindly. "I know you're going through some rough times but once we get all the information, we're sure to solve this problem quickly."

Cynthia understood the pressure Gardenia was facing. So many people were questioning and demanding for an explanation. The Pokemon Committee decided to keep everything hushed up but that wasn't making Gardenia's job easier with two opposing sides pressuring her to either talk or to shut up. "Maybe we can get someone to help lighten the load. How about" – Cynthia gave a smirking smile – "We ask Roark? You guys make such a cute couple."

Gardenia immediately blushed and flinched, causing her cup of coffee to spill and the liquid to drip to the ground. "R-Roark? No way!" Gardenai said as she, flustering, stood up and tried to grab a napkin to wipe the spill. "He is the rudest person in the world! Always making fun of me and my clumsy state even though I definitely have more seniority status than he does."

Cynthia couldn't help but laugh at the sight of Gardenia's embarrassed state. Gardenia was one of the only Sinnoh Gym Leaders who still act as though she was still new to her job despite her seniority over some of the other Gym Leaders. On the other hand, Roark, though still new, worked very hard and was learning at a faster pace than Gardenia. Cynthia managed to overhear from fellow friends on how cute the two could be together.

"I'm kidding. I'm kidding. You guys definitely aren't made for each other," Cynthia said and Gardenia immediately breathed a sigh of relief."Its great to know that you can still act like yourself no matter what. Remember to take a break once in a while."

"Excuse me." Cynthia looked up and saw the waiter in front of her again. "The people you were waiting for are here now." Cynthia looked up and saw the short chairman walking towards her. Behind him was a spiky brown hair, twelve year old kid with large hazel eyes. He was dressed very casual – black sweatshirt with an Evee printed on the front and comfortable jeans. On top of his hair was a yellowed brimmed cap. In his hand was a large manila envelope that was had bulks of paper inside. Cynthia's eyes widen with surprise as she slowly realized who the person was in front of her. This was the boy whom she had saved back in Floaroma Town. Gardenia, on the other hand, peeked curiously and clueless at the boy as though she was waiting for some explanation.

"Hello," the boy said, looking around nervously as though he thought he was being spied on, "I'm Tory."

…

The Contest Hall was buzzing with excitement. Thousands of people were eating popcorn or gossiping in the stands. Ever since the Floaroma Contest incident, security has definitely increased. Many guards were standing near the door and occasionally spoke to their wrist as though there was a communicator there. Suddenly, the lights dimmed and the audience quelled as though a spell as been put on them. Lights suddenly flashed onto the stage. The curtains moved back to reveal a early thirty year old woman in the center. Next to her were three feet tall white boxes with a screen on the top. Sitting behind them, were three judges. The lady revealed a microphone in her hand and spoke into it so that her voice amplified for everyone to hear.

"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Hearthome Pokemon Contest! I'm your host and announcer – Marian!" The short brown curly hair tall lady waved to the crowd as they cheered back in reply. Marian had her usual attire on – soft pink headband on top of her head, a daffodil yellow sleeveless trench coat with pink mini dress and leg warmers along with sandals.

There was a good amount of people here, not to mention that the stage looks fabulous. The stage was wide and spacious and the lights were angled perfectly. There were many cameramen around, making sure to have the perfect shots to show on the big screen.

"First let's introduce our panel of judges! First up we have Mr. Contesta – the Pokemon Contest director," Marian spread one of her arm to the elderly gentleman with the red tuxedo. He waved to the crowd and once he put his hand down, Marian continued. "Next is Mr. Sukizo – the President of the Pokemon Fan Club." The short round squatted man with narrow eyes smiled and waved happily to the applauding audience. "And finally," Marian said, concluding her introductions, "we have Keira – our top judges and one of our famous Hearthome Idols!" A huge roar of screams ensued and Keira, quite a bit embarrassed at Marian's last comment, gave a polite wave.

Soon the cheers immediately quelled and excitement filled the air. Marian smiled, sensing the anticipation. "Of course, how can the start of the contest be complete without our very own Pokemon Gym Leader and Coordinator? Give it up for Fantina!" There was a stream of thick smoke and out popped out Fantina on her Drifblim. She dropped down to the center of the stage, next to Marian.

"Bonjour!" Fantina said, waving to the crowd and blowing kisses, "Velcome to ze 'earthome Pokemon Contest!" Immediately, waves of yelling and squeals of excitement. Fantina, loving the excitement, continued to wave.

"Fantina will be our judge for the battle part of the contest!" Marian explained, "She will take Mr. Sukizo's place but for now, she is a excited spectator like all of you!" Fantina took a bow and sat behind a large panel box that was decorated purple with a pink heart in the center. Applauses were heard but there was a sense of impatience in the air and Marian decided to start the contest.

"Let's bring out our first contestant – Sonia from our very own Hearthome City!"

…

"Are you sure it's safe here?" Ashe whispered to Ven as they snuck into the Contest hall. Performances have already started. Right now, a Wartotle was blowing blue bubbles into the air.

"Don't know," Ven replied back. The crowd was roaring and he was getting easily distracted. "The police station would be better you know."

"Well, I don't trust the police," Ashe said frowning and sticking her tongue out, "They wouldn't believe my story. Besides, I feel safer with my big brother Ven!" As though to express her happiness of finding her "long-lost brother," Ashe grabbed Ven's arm and hugged him.

"Hahaha," Ven laughed weakly, "I'm not really your brother though."

"Well, you're like my brother," Ashe smiled, "You saved me when I was in trouble. Oh look! The next performance is starting." Ashe's attention was immediately on the next coordinator who summoned out his Snorlax. The large giant Pokemon yawned and slowly got up. Ven, however, frowned in confusion. What Ashe just said – _"You're like my brother…"_ – is she saying she has a brother? If so, why wasn't he there with her when Ashe was in trouble?

…

Buneary was running away as fast as possible. In its hand was the Poke ball that was supposed to hold it inside. Buneary stole it just before it escaped from Keira's grasp. If she didn't have the Poke ball then there was no way Buneary would be held prisoner again. Of course, there was always a setback.

Chasing the little baby Pokemon was a Gengar – Fantina's Gengar. Of course, the ghost Pokemon was trying to bring the Buneary back to Keira but the little bunny refused to end its fun now. Dashing through the crowded halls, Buneary passed through many legs of coordinators, spectators, and security.

It finally skidded to a halt in front of a open door and quickly went in. Gengar, trying to stay invisible, floated past the door and Buneary breathed a sigh of relief. The little Pokemon looked around and noticed that it managed to get into the coordinator's dressing room. There were a good amount of people though none of them seemed to notice the little Pokemon. Everyone seemed to busy with their own personal problems.

Wanting to explore, Buneary jumped over bags, Ball Capsules, stickers, makeup, Poffin cases, and other things when Buneary noticed a large white bag. On the bag was stitched in pink the word – Dawn Platinum Berlitz. Buneary realized that it was the girl that the boy who gave her Poffins earlier was traveling with. If that was the case then there must be Poffins…

Buneary grinned and immediately dived into the bag – its feet sticking out. And it soon was out of sight. In the dark, the naughty little Buneary rummaged through Dawn's stuff and soon found the Poffin Case but before it could do anything, the Poke ball in its grasp slipped and opened up. Suddenly, Buneary was sucked back into its own Poke ball – in Dawn's bag. Not long after, someone came rushing in to open the bag.

"Oh no, oh no, oh no," Dawn muttered to herself in panic. "I can't believe I forgot my Aipom! My turn is about to come up too!" She grabbed her white bag and zipped it open. To her relief, a Pokeball was on top of all of her jumbled stuff. "Oh good, its right here... Come on Dawn, focus! I need to remember not to make a mistake like that again." With that, Dawn took the Poke ball out rushed out while putting on a Ball Capsule and a sticker on it, not knowing that the Pokemon inside wasn't Aipom.

…

Damion was in a very sour mood. Despite the interesting performances and excited atmosphere from everybody else, he was glaring with pure anger at Lucas. Johanna, being a former Sinnoh coordinator champion, managed to get front row seats for the two boys. Johanna left them there while she went to take care of some things with Fantina about the security of the place and promised to be back in time to watch her daughter's performance. Although Damion had an angry face, Lucas was applauding along with the crowd and was completely obvious to his friend's killing intent though everybody else around seemed to feel it and inched farther and farther away.

The coordinator, a short brown hair girl with a red party dress, performing right now has a beautiful yellow Ampharos out. There were quite a bit of respective 'wows' from the crowd.

"Ampharos!" the girl cried out, "use Cotton Spore!" The yellow tall Pokemon released thousands of white spores into the air. They looked like enlarged snowflakes that slowly started to fall to the ground.

"Oh, Rena has started with Cotton Spore. Beautiful start to the appeal!" Marian said.

"Use Light Screen, follow by Power Gem!" Ampharos covered itself with a green colored shield just after releasing a brilliantly white light that spread out into many streams of smaller lights. The attack missed the cotton spores and streamed down and created small craters onto the ground. Ampharos was protected thanks to the Light Screen barrier. The spores were now sparkling bright thanks to Power Gem attack.

"Wow," Lucas said, while a bunch of people from the audience was clapping at the beautiful appeal. "That was very good. I wonder if Dawn will be okay…"

"Hmph," Damion replied, "She will be okay. She doesn't need somebody like you just to be extraordinary."

"Huh?" Lucas said, confused at Damion's sour mood.

"Oh my!" Marian announced, "What a beautiful burst of power from that Power Gem! It gives a radiant glow to the Cottons Spore attack." Mr. Contesta and Keira gave small nods of agreement while Mr. Sukizo said his famous line – "Remarkable!" Fantina's eyes glowed with fascination and couldn't help but shout out some French words that consist of "Merveilleux!" and "Bravo!"

"Hey guys, how is it going?" Damion and Lucas looked around and saw Ven. He looked a bit stressed as though he had been running around in a confusing maze, looking for a way out. "I was looking all over for you guys." Lucas and Damion noticed that there was a young girl with a blue jacket and short blue skirt standing next to the cheerful Ven.

"Ummm. These are your friends?" the girl asked Ven before acting all shy and hiding behind the boy.

"No need to be scared, Ashe. This is Damion and Lucas. Damion and Lucas, this is Ashe," Ven said, pointing to the two – Damion was glaring suspiciously at Ashe while Lucas gave a small grin and gave a welcoming wave. "Anyways, can we sit here?" Damion, still suspicious, nodded and turned his head back to the performance. Ven sat down next to the blonde hair kid while Ashe sat on Ven's other side. Ashe was still quiet and seemed to be more nervous than excited though she tried to turn her attention to the contest.

"Finish with Thunder!" Rena ordered as the last command. Storm clouds formed overhead and a strong bolt of lightning came crashing down. The spores immediately started to absorb the electricity and started to crackle with energy. Suddenly, the cotton spores burst out into even smaller forms of white spores and started to float down, emitting sparkling lights as though they were teardrops.

Immediately, the room was erupted with cheers. Damion could feel his eardrum splitting from the pain. Damion and Ashe both covered their ears with their hands and waited for the noise to die down a bit.

"Wow," Ven said with a dumb happy look on his face, as though the sound didn't comprehend to his brain yet, "That was a good performance." Lucas had the same expression on his face as he applauded with the crowd.

"Exclusive beauty!" Marian cried, unable to hold her neutral view of the appeal. "I definitely wouldn't be surprised to see Rena in the final round." Rena gave an embarrassed yet pleased look but curtseyed to the audience and the applauding judges before returning her Pokemon and leaving the stage.

"Give another round for Rena and let's introduce our next coordinator from Goldenrod City - Amy!"

…

Dawn looked out nervously and paced in the room. She was coming up next, right after her coordinator friend Bri. She was too nervous to look at the screen and found herself staring at the floor more than usual. In Dawn's hand was her Poke ball. It was already in the Ball Capsule and had a heart sticker at the center of where the Poke ball opens. Dawn clutched onto it as though it was her supporting life line.

She wasn't the only one nervous. Many coordinators seemed to be pacing across the floor as though sitting was not an option, even the ones who already went. Only the older coordinators and the more experienced ones seemed more lax, as though they were convinced that they were definitely going to be in the top. Instead, they gave each other suspicious looks and observed the screen as though to determine their opponents' weakness.

What seemed like only seconds, the announcer spoke through the speakers, "Would Dawn from Twinleaf Town please come to the stage at this time?" Dawn took a deep breath and, feeling every nervous coordinator watching her, passed through the doors and down the hallway, leading directly to the stage. Coming from the other side was Bri and she looked extremely exhausted.

"Ah man, that was pretty bad," Bri sighed. "I tried to make the appeal flashier and everything. Well, it completely backfired."

"Hey," Dawn said, smiling in support though her muscles in her mouth seemed to be not working well, "It's not over yet." Bri gave a ditzy grin in reply.

"Well, good luck Dawn," Bri said, "You're going to do great." Bri gave Dawn a high five and went back to the coordinator's waiting room while Dawn, putting on her best smile, step through the door and waited patiently while Marian announced her.

"Give a warm welcome to Twinleaf's Town – Dawn Berlitz!" Dawn was immediately blasted with a roar of appreciative applause. She could feel her stomach twisting with unpleasantness.

"COME ON DAWN!" Damion yelled, "GIVE IT ALL YOU GOT!" He was already feeling pumped up.

"Let's go Dawn!" Lucas said. He tried to yell as well but compare to Damion's voice, Lucas' was more of a whisper.

"You're pretty hyped up," Ven said to Damion who was still yelling encouragements. Ven turned back to look at Dawn. Ven could see why Lucas talked about her a lot. She was very pretty. Her long jet black hair was tied up by a pony tail and she wore a pink dress. Her gray eyes looked around nervously but when she saw Damion and Lucas, Dawn gave a huge sigh of relief and curtseyed to the crowd.

"Hey guys!" Johanna said as she joined in and sat next to Lucas. "I made it just in time."

"Hi, Mrs. Berlitz," Lucas said politely. Damion responded by yelling things like – "DON'T LOSE DAWN!"

Johanna couldn't help but laugh, "Damion is still the same as ever." It was then that she noticed two unknown people next to Damion. The two looked questioningly at Johanna as though wondering who this lady was and how did Lucas know her. "I'm sorry, but do I know you two?"

"Oh hi," Ven grinned as though he just remembered his manners, "I'm Ven and this is Ashe." Ashe gave a shy smile and waved politely at Johanna.

"Oh, nice to meet you," Johanna smiled, "It's so nice to meet my daughter's new friends. My name is Johanna Berlitz."

"You're Dawn's mom?" Ashe asked, realizing the similarity in last names. Johanna nodded and turned to watch her daughter perform. She too started to yell encouragements.

"Wait," Ashe said slowly as though realizing something, "I'm not exactly Dawn's friend though… I don't even know her."

"Sure you are," Ven said, "She is a friend of Lucas, so I guess that makes her a friend of mine." He gave a big grin and then said, "And of course, that's makes you her friend as well since you're my friend. Therefore, we must cheer for her. DON'T LOSE DAWN!" Ven yelled that last part and joined in with Damion's voice.

"Oh!" Ashe said, as though what Ven said made no sense but decided to go along with the logic, "In that case, GO DAWN! WIN THAT RIBBON!"

_Who are those two?_ Dawn thought as she watched a short blonde hair kid with a baseball cap on his head cheered his heart out along with a young girl with brown hair. _Do I know them?_

"Dawn!" Dawn looked and saw it was Keira who had spoken. The lady gave an encouraging nod and Dawn realized she needed to start.

"Okay, here we go," Dawn took a deep breath to calm her nerves and took out her Poke ball. This was her moment to shine. She can't screw it up on the first round. Even if the chance was slim, Dawn knew that she needed to put in her best effort. "Come on out Aipom!" She threw the Poke ball into the air and the Poke ball opened to reveal thousands of hearts floating out. The crowd wowed with excitement. All of them couldn't wait to see what is in store inside the Poke ball.

And inside the Poke ball was… not an Aipom?

"Miii?" Buneary looked around confusingly as though trying to figure out where it was. It twitched its ears in confusion as it watched the hearts float into the air before disappearing.

"Huh?" Dawn said, her eyes were bulging with shock. Her arms were frozen in the air.

"What?" Damion and Johanna gasped.

"Buneary?" Keira screamed. The other two judges stared at each other with puzzled looks.

"Oh NONNNNN!" Fantina screamed with shock. She then fell to the floor and fainted. Marian looked beyond confused and looked back and forth from Dawn and the judges. The audience stared at each other, baffled. What was going on?

"Huh?" Ashe said, just as shocked, "Isn't Aipom a… well, a monkey and not a bunny? Wait a minute, did I just rhyme?"

"Wow!" Lucas said, apparently not understanding the situation. He looked excited instead of confused. "Dawn caught a Buneary and named it 'Aipom'!"

"You're right! Dawn is so smart! Giving the entire audience a good shock by revealing a different Pokemon than expected! That is a very cool nickname for a Buneary." Ven said this as though this (for some blatant reason) made perfect sense. He then screamed, "GO FOR IT AIPOM!"

BAM! BAM! Damion immediately slammed his fist against Lucas' and Ven's head. "YOU IDIOTS! Are you two that stupid?"

"Owww," Ven and Lucas whimpered. Ashe couldn't help but give a nervous laugh in agreement.

"No way," Johanna muttered. She was more concern of the current situation and didn't seem fazed by Damion's violent behavior, "How did Dawn get Keira's Buneary?" If Johanna was confused, Dawn was panicking. What was going on? That Poke ball was in her bag. How in the world did it turn out to be Buneary, let alone Keira's?

For Buneary, however, its eyes immediately glowed with wonder and happiness. So this is what it is like to perform in front of a stage. The crowds had their eyes on you; the excitement was beyond description of words. Buneary could feel its excitement growing and decided to perform for the first time in its life. Before anyone could comprehend or do anything, Buneary decided to take the stage.

"Miii!" Buneary immediately opened its mouth and a blue orb of light and it shot out in a constant stream. The blue light hit the ground and ice was immediately formed. Buneary stood on its toes and spun around, creating a thick yet flat spiral of ice.

"Wow!" Marian said, amazed. "Buneary knows such a rare Ice Beam attack and has now created a beautiful ice sculpture." The audience, overcoming their shock, started to clap with enthusiasm. Buneary was amazed at the sudden rush of applause. It felt so good to be appreciated. Squealing with excitement, it started up its next combo. Immediately, it jumped high into the air, almost touching the high ceiling. It then came down by sliding down on the spiral of ice.

"Wow, now Buneary used Bounce and then spiral down by using the Ice Beam slide it just created!" Marian continued. The movement caused a lot of squeals from the girls in the audience.

"It's so cuteeeeeee!"

"Amazing!" Marian said, "Dawn is so confident in Pokemon that she allows it to use the moves by itself! Dawn is obviously a high skilled and well trainer coordinator."

"That's not really what it is," Damion muttered, slapping his hand to his face. Ashe looked amazed at Buneary's performance and Ven and Lucas looked completely relieved and happy. The situation was a-okay. Johanna was frowning. She figured this was going to cause some problems later… After all, Buneary is not Dawn's Pokemon.

_It's not like I'm confident or well-trained. It's more like I can't do anything_, Dawn thought as she continued to gape at Buneary's eccentric moves. Keira looked as though she didn't know if she should rush on stage and grab her Buneary or continue to judge like the others were doing. Meanwhile, a couple of security guards were trying to revive the fainted Fantina who kept mutter 'Non,non, non!".

Buneary jumped off and did another twirl and gave its cutest smile and winked to the crowd. There was an immediate screaming from the girls and a huge appreciative applause. Buneary rubbed the back of its head in happy embarrassment and skipped next to Dawn's side.

"Give another round of applause for Dawn Berlitz!" Dawn gave a small and confused courtesy before rushing off stage as fast yet most dignified way as possible. Buneary blew a few more kisses and tried to stay onstage as long as possible until it realized its owner, Keira, giving it a sort of glare – a very angry one. Deciding it was better to leave, Buneary followed Dawn. The judges immediately huddled together and started to whisper. They motioned Marian to come over and they continued to whisper some more. Marian frowned but nodded, understanding what she needed to do.

"Ladies and gentlemen!" Marian announced to the audience and put on her best smile, "The judges would like to take an unannounced break at this time and will be back no later than thirty minutes. Please wait until then and we'll start on our next appeal!" The judges didn't even stayed a bit and instead hurried to the back of the stage. The audience was buzzing with even more confusion but nevertheless decided to wait. The only three who didn't were Damion, Johanna, and Lucas. The latter was being dragged by Damion.

"Do you think something bad has happened?" Ashe said, looking a bit scared.

"No way," Ven grinned, "They're just probably going to congratulate Dawn on such a great performance. GO DAWN! GO AIPOM! GO BUNEARY!"

…

"Hmm," Fuuta thought as he watched the screen. He watched the judges leave before turning away and out the door, leaving all the coordinators inside confused and suspicious. Fuuta slowly put his index finger to his temple and thought carefully, "So much confusion."

_Yes, now, my mind slave, follow them so we can figure out what is going on! And use your powers to control the world! MUHAHAHAHA!_

"You again," Fuuta sighed and took a glance at his backpack. Fuuta's brown eyes turned slightly blue. "When will you learn to shut up, especially when there are so many people here?" Fuuta said everything so quietly because it would look extremely weird to other people if they saw him talking to himself.

_Do not question the master!_ The voice cried again. Its voice boomed loudly inside Fuuta's head. _Now follow my command!_ Fuuta rolled his eyes and didn't respond. Instead, Fuuta put his backpack in the front and punched it. His fist made contact with something though it felt more like condensed gas.

_Ow! What did you do that for?_ This time the voice sounded more childlike and less godly. _That hurts!_

"My bad," Fuuta said and slung his backpack back onto his shoulder. "Now shut up so I can think in peace." Fuuta noticed now that there were several people staring back funny at him. He had got to stop talking out loud all the time but using his mind to speak is so irritating. It's like trying to comprehend what someone is saying to him while he was trying to speak to someone else.

_NEVER!_ The voice cried again. _Now bow down to me my mind slave!_ Fuuta sighed again and looked around. Where was the nearest trash can so he can dump this miserable spirit in?

**Author's Notes**

I bet none of you guys expected that. XP

Well, what will happen to Dawn now? Will she be disqualified since she didn't use her own Pokemon? And what happened to Fantina? All will sort of be answered in the next chapter. Lol.

IMPORTANT NEWS! Well sort of important. Okay, just to let you know, I've made a new story and it's the prologue to this one! Right now, the name is DP: Reverse Time. It'll be all about Lucas' past (err, future) just before this story. And yes, I'll be taking OCs but not as this time since I'm trying to figure out how to write the profile.

Anyways, moving on. New anime and new game coming out very soon. I saw the new evolution of the new starter Pokemon and I must say, I've never felt… well, let's just say I was kind of disappointed. Right now, I'm more interested in learning who the new Gym Leaders are. Also in the anime, what's wrong with Ash's eyes? Whose bright idea was it to change it?

Okay, moving on. Let's wrap up and thank the reviewers.

…

**dark5523**

**amichalap**

**dracula-key**

**Furryfur **(Contests are always exciting. :D Thanks for the review.)

**hydro-serpent58** (haha, love is so innocent. XP Hmm, I have no real preference at this time of what Pokemon I like the best. I guess that Chillarmy Pokemon is probably my favorite so far. Anyways, thanks for reviewing.)

**shiny eveee4**

**SagaAuraMana**

**Solyeuse **(LOL. I'm trying to get to a thousand but that'll probably take a while. Hmmm, well so far, my inspiration is still going. ;D But I agree on being too slow. Just wish I knew when to exactly cut off and stop babbling about a certain scene. Sigh. Thanks for noticing the errors and for your review.)

**Pikana**

**Ketchum Kid** (NOOO! I'm considered second to that manga! Lol. Jkjk. Thanks for reviewing and your opinion of the situation.)

**Banana **(yeah, Leo died. Sad thing was that he was one of my favorite OCs to write. Thanks for the review.)

**gg121** (lol. I haven't said what Pokemon DNA Assassin has but I will have it mentioned at least in the prologue story if not in this one. Thanks for the review.)

**Light-Sakura**

**Yaersulf**

…

All right that's it from me.

See you in the next chapter.

**-JapanDreamer**


	63. Disqualification and Trouble

**Disclaimer: No Pokemon was owned in this story.**

Hey guys, another update! I'm so sorry but my school work has been piling up.

Just to let you know, I'm going to busy this and next month so don't expect a lot of updates.

Also, for those who don't know, I have finally posted up the OC profile for the **DP Reverse Time** story. If you want to send an OC, read the instructions and send it to me. :D

Okay, on to the chapter!

**Chapter 60:**

_**A couple of days ago…**_

"GWAHAHAHA!" Byron roared with laughter as he saw the blue sea surrounding him. "Such a beautiful place though I do prefer dry land." Byron's Shieldon gave an annoyed look before closing its eyes and falling fast asleep close to the gym leader. Alex, on the other hand, replied by groaning – his face was very green. The poor Lucario kid was having a hard time enjoying his surrounding after that speed breaking traveling. The sea water sprayed everywhere and the thick fluffy white clouds passed by as though white streaks against the blue sky. Now, all of a sudden after fifteen minutes of backbreaking speed, the boat finally decided to finally halt in the middle of nowhere, causing the passengers (especially Alex) to slid forward from the force of the brakes. Byron still managed to stand throughout the whole trip while the same can't be said for Alex.

"Come on now," Byron said, pulling Alex back up. "You need to be tough like a man if you want to become stronger. Don't let something small like this kill you." Alex gave a weak grin as Byron slapped the boy's back, causing the boy to collapse back on the deck's floor. However, this time Byron didn't help the boy up. Instead, the gym leader turned his head toward the sea as though he heard something. The sound of a speed boat. "Well, lookie here," Byron grinned again as he noticed in the horizon a small red speedboat came directly toward the ship. The boat sliced through the water with ease, causing sprays of droplets to spread out like white wings and form rainbow colors. "It looks like your teacher is here." The speedboat grew bigger and bigger until Byron could make out a young man in his mid twenties behind the steering wheel.

The strange newcomer had a navy blue fedora hat that was tilted to the side so that one of his eyes was covered in the shadow and covered his spiky dark blue almost black hair. He wore a navy blue tuxedo overcoat with a black collar and a black shirt underneath and long slack pants. The strange man was a slim figure and seemed pale against the strong sunlight. Next to him in the passenger seat was not human.

Instead, it was a blue jackal like Pokemon that could stand on its two legs. On the back of its black paws were white spikes and had a yellow fur body along with a blue tail. It had its eyes closed and its arms crossed as though in a deep sleep. However, as soon as the boat sputtered to a stop, the Pokemon immediately opened its narrowed red eyes. It bore its eyes through the ship as though reading the very minds of the souls in there.

"Good to see there Riley!" Byron roared from above and waved his gloved hands. The man looked up by the sound of his name and squinted slightly from the bright sunlight overhead. There was a moment of silence and then the man gave a nod and broke into a friendly smile before speaking for the first time.

"It's good to see you too Bryon."

…

_Present day in Galactic Headquarters…_

Saturn reread the data he had just received on the computer screen. Everything the workers found had been handed to me in a nice disk. It was a lot of information but it was more useful than useless as he scoured for data he deemed to be needed for his kidnapping to work – things like information on financials and a small bit of biography. This girl was more than just rich; she was the next heir of the Berlitz – one of the wealthiest and well known. Plus, the family would be able to pay up immediately with no questions asked.

However, the question is where the girl is. According to the data, the girl already left home to travel. After that fiasco in Eterna City thanks to Jupiter, Cyrus has ordered everyone to keep a low profile. Shame that there was only one small picture of the girl… it seems that the family is quite private on showing family photos.

Personally, Saturn felt like it would be a waste of time to scour everywhere to look for one person, but if he wanted to get that project done in time for the boss, he would need the money first. He was going to need a lot more information than just the family's data if he was going to start hunting. First, Saturn thought as he started to formulate a plan, he needed a general idea of where the girl had been and he had just the idea. The blue hair man pressed the intercom button and a buzzing sound ensue until, after two seconds, a female robotic sound came through the speaker.

"Captain Saturn," the woman said as though her voice was computerized.

"I want you to hack into the security video footage of all of the cities and use the computers for face recognition of a particular person whose picture I will be sending you. Do these discreetly mind you."

"Yes sir," the robotic voice said without the slightest hint of curiosity or confusion. Saturn took out the photo that Mars has given to him earlier and scanned it to the computer before sending it directly. This will take a couple of days if not weeks. Saturn decided that while he waited, he should go and stretch his legs a bit.

After all, who could resist sightseeing at the lake he was most interested in? Might as well have a good look at its beauty before he gets the money to bomb and destroy the place.

…

_Hearthome City…_

"I'm so sorry!" Dawn, Keira, and Fantina said at the same time. The three were in a small conference room that could fit up to twenty or so people. The three coordinators were in the front of the room and side by side as they all tried to explain to the other two panel judges, Mariana, and Johanna who were sitting in the chairs surrounding a long rectangular table. To make things quite a bit more uncomfortable, Keira, due to anger, had Buneary in her arms as if to place the perpetrator in front of the judges. The little bunny kept struggling and kicking its legs in vain in hopes of escaping. Of course, it didn't realize what a catastrophe it had caused.

"You see this is what happened –"

"I didn't mean for this –"

"Zis isn't Dawn's fault because –"

"All right, hold on," Johanna said, her voice loud enough to be heard over the nonstop talking, Johanna raised the palm of her hand out as though making a stop sign. Immediately, the talking stopped. The woman sighed and pointed to Dawn first, "Dawn?"

"I didn't mean to use Buneary!" Dawn gabbled, "I forgot my Aipom's Poke ball and went to get it in my bag but then, well, I have no idea how that happened!" Dawn had her bag with her and opened it as though to prove that Buneary's Poke ball was indeed found in there. The coordinator was freaking out despite her mom's calm reassuring face. Dawn never expected to encounter such a huge problem like this. In fact, she highly doubted anybody encountered such a huge problem like this in the history of Contests. "I know I should've checked but I never thought a Pokemon that wasn't mine would appear in my bag."

"Buneary escaped from me," Keira said as though to tie the loose end of Dawn's story, "I was looking for before the Contest but couldn't find it. Also, Buneary escaped with her Poke ball too so maybe that explains why Dawn found it in its Pokeball." Keira struggled to stand upright while Buneary continued to squirm under its owner's grasp. "It is my responsibility to take care of this Pokemon and I will see to it that it will get the right punishment."

"I insisted zat Keira stopped looking for 'er Buneary because of the Contest. I vos to 'ave my Gengar to look out for ze Buenary," Fantina said as though to defend Keira, "I zink Buneary tried to run avay from my Gengar and zis chaos ensued."

"Okay, okay," Johanna said and looked at the other three people sitting next to her, "What can we do? Dawn has already preformed the act and we're already running behind schedule with this meeting. We don't have much time to redo the whole thing unless we prolong this to tomorrow and that will not be a good idea." The other two judges were in deep in thought as though trying to figure out the best idea to deal with this.

"The only choice I can see is disqualification," Mr. Contesta said slowly after careful thought. Dawn felt as though her stomach was plunged into an ice cold bucket. Disqualify? They wouldn't do something like this… They couldn't… They can't. She worked so hard for this and now it was going to be snatched away from her.

"What? Wait, no!" Keira objected immediately, "We shouldn't punish Dawn for my mistake."

"Qui, qui!" Fantaina agreed in French, "Ve should not let a coordinator go for something vike zis."

"Yet, I don't see any other way," Mr. Contesta said. Dawn swallowed hard as though trying to speak up yet her mouth didn't seem to work. Johanna was shaking her head, trying to think of something but nothing came up.

"I, gym leader of 'earthome City, will not let such a decision be pass!" Fantina declared to the judges. She was waving her gloved hands around as though to get their attention even though it wasn't necessary. "Do you really think Dawn deserves zis? Johanna, she's vour daughter!" The others looked very embarrassed at the last part of Fantina's comment as they all stared at Johanna who seemed even more embarrassed.

Johanna sighed, unable to respond for a while. Finally, she looked directly at her daughter. Their eyes gazed upon each other as though there was a mutual understanding between the two.

"Dawn? What do you think?" Johanna said finally.

…

Just outside, two people were having a silent fight over who gets to hear what behind the thick door. It looked very comical to see a blond hair and a black hair kid trying to press their ears against the door.

"Shhh!" Damion hissed, "I can't hear a word that they are saying." He shoved Lucas on the head so that Lucas' face was now parallel and touching the ground. A whole bunch of people were watching this comedian duet with amusement before continuing on their way. Some even stared for a couple of minutes and had their mouth slightly open from shock.

"Is it okay to do this?" Lucas asked again while tugging on Damion's green scarf. Damion puckered his lips in frustration as he pushed his ear harder against the door. "They wouldn't allow us in so they probably don't want us to hear what they are saying," Lucas continued in sort of a dazed voice as though he was daydreaming again.

"They wouldn't let us in so in a sense, they're encouraging us to eavesdrop." Damion said hitting Lucas lightly on the head to keep his attention toward reality, "Therefore, it is their fault that we're here like this."

"Ohhhh," Lucas muttered, still dazed.

"Hey, what are you guys up to?" Somebody asked from behind them. The two boys didn't notice but it was Ven who was peering curiously over Damion as though to see what Damion was hearing.

"Shh! We're trying to figure out what is going on behind there. Dawn and the other judges are having a super important meeting because the Buneary wasn't her Pokemon," Damion muttered. He could hear snippets of voices, especially a loud French accent of a woman's.

"Really? So Buneary's nickname wasn't Aipom?" With that Ven pressed his ear to the door as well, squashing Lucas even harder to the door. "Wow, these people can communicate in a different language! I can't understand a word they're saying!" Ven gabbled in excitement, making it very difficult to concentrate and listen to what was going on behind the door. Damion's anger was starting to boil and rising faster. Sooner or later, he was going to explode.

"That's what I said to Damion!" Lucas said too, his eyes were finally wide open and excited, "I think this is some sort of coordinator special secrete language!"

"We need to get Dawn to teach us!" Ven said in a really happy voice. Finally, Damion exploded.

"WILL YOU TWO SHUT UP?" Damion roared at the two happy-go lucky trainers. "I CAN'T HEAR A THING!" At that moment, the door opened and the three trainers came tumbling in. BLAT! Damion and Ven both fell and landed face down on top of Lucas and squashed the poor guy like a pancake. When they all lift their heads, they saw the person who had the curtsey to open the door for them.

"Lucas, Damion, what are you guys doing in front of the door?" Johanna asked the three people.

"Um, we were just…" Damion paused, trying to figure out what type of lie he should say when Lucas cut in.

"We were eavesdropping," Lucas said happily, thinking he helped Damion out.

"Yup! I must say, you guys really know how to keep it a secret meeting," Ven said as well and Lucas and he gave off a happy grin while Damion gave the both of them a 'I will personally kill you later' glare.

"Okayyy…" Johanna said, unsure what Ven was talking about.

"So, how is Dawn?" Lucas asked, being serious for the first time. Johanna frowned a bit and looked over her shoulder, back into the room. Almost immediately, Dawn appeared by the door. Even though she was trying her best to smile, tears were streaming down her gray colored eyes.

"Dawn?" Lucas said, his face was now filled with worry. Damion had a look of shock while Ven's smile finally turned upside down.

"I'm disqualified," Dawn said, wiping her tears and again trying to put on a brave smile, "It's okay though. It's okay." There was a heavy silence between the whole group.

"Dawn, I'm so sorry," Damion whispered.

"Dawn," Johanna said, trying to reach out for her daughter, but Dawn was already running out and down the hall. She covered her face, not wanting anyone in the hall to see the tears streaming out.

"Wait, Dawn!" Damion struggled out of the pile and ran after her. Lucas, too, got up and followed Damion. Ven, on the other hand, got up and stared questioningly at Johanna.

"Dawn decided that she couldn't move to the next round if she didn't use her own Pokemon to perform. She said that the best thing to do was to be disqualified." Ven whistled in amazement.

"Wow," Ven said, really surprised and unsure of what else to say. He put his arms behind his head and leaned slightly on the heel of his feet. He stared off into the direction where Dawn ran off. "It must have been very hard for her."

"Yeah," Johanna said, "I didn't want this to happen but she was insistent that this was the right thing to do." Johanna paused for a moment and looked as though she too wanted to cry. "I'm sorry, but you'll have to excuse me. I need to go and comfort my daughter." Ven watched as Johanna ran down the hall as well. He sighed, wondering why things had to turn out like this.

"What happened? What I miss?," Ven looked around and saw Ashe standing next to him with a bag of popcorn in her arms.

"Dawn got disqualified," Ven muttered, shrugging her shoulders.

"Oh no," Ashe said in a whisper. She covered her mouth with her free hand. "Is she okay?"

"She will be," Ven said firmly, "It will just take some time. That's all."

"And she worked so hard," Ashe said sadly. "Should we go comfort her?"

"Nah," Ven said, shaking his head, "No need to interfere when her friends are there for her. She is going to be all right. Come on, let's go." Ven led the young Ashe back out of the hall and to the Contest area.

…

"Twenty… nineteen…" Fuuta muttered, counting the numbers under his breath as he slowly breathed in and out… in and out. In the hall where he was, there weren't a lot of people. Mostly because there was an announcement that the Pokemon Contest was about to start again and everybody had already rushed back to their seats or were preparing to perform. Fuuta was leaning against the wall and seemed to be trying to calm down his anger. Of course, the source of his anger was all inside of his head – more specifically, the voices in his head.

_Stop counting!_ The voice boomed in his head again. _Why don't you go flirt with some girls like you always do?_

_You only like it because you like to criticize each girl I flirt._

_I know,_ the spirt said in a grinning voice, _so go flirt with some girl that has buckteeth or something._

_I just did,_ Fuuta said in his mind, _and she turned me down._

_Well, maybe she wouldn't have if haven't flirted in front of the other girl you had asked out on a date just a couple of minutes ago! It makes you look desperate!_

Fuuta groaned and banged his head against the wall, hoping the voice itself will get banged up as well. Fuuta was starting to wish that he had headphones that can block voices from his mind – that and evil spirits who hold very large grudges. Fuuta once again started to practice his breathing exercise. In… and out… In… and out.

"Damion? Dawn?" Fuuta's eyes snapped open and to his surprise, saw Lucas running down the hall and looking left to right. He looked like he was looking for someone but was very lost.

"Lucas?" Fuuta said outloud this time. Lucas looked startled at the sound of his name and turned his head around and finally saw Fuuta. Not to Fuuta's surprise, Lucas' face turned into puzzlement as though he couldn't remember who Fuuta was.

"Excuse me, did you call my name?" Lucas asked politely. Inside, Fuuta smirked. Lucas' politeness reminded him a bit of Shiki. She is always trying to act nice to everyone despite who they are and would never bad mouth them. Of course, Lucas' stupidity reminded him of Daniel – always talking in two sentences or less and seemed to sleep more that stay awake.

_Who's the kid? _The spirit asked but Fuuta ignored the voice and walked straight to Lucas.

"Remember me? From the Pokemon Contest in Floaroma and also in Jubilife City?" Fuuta said. Lucas stared back blankly before saying…

"No, I'm sorry. I think you're mistaking me for somebody else." Fuuta gave a snort of laughter for a moment (puzzling Lucas even more) before turning all serious. Fuuta's eyes turned slightly blue and Fuuta could feel his mind going into Lucas. It was a rush of ecstasy to feel his power pulsing through. However, he was just taking it easy and only touching the surface of the Lucas' mind.

_What are you doing?_ The spirit asked, this time alarmed.

Suddenly, Fuuta felt his mind blocked as though he just ran into a wall and was thrown back. Lucas' eyes turned from surprise to realization at what just happened.

_Did that kid_, the voice said in Fuuta's head. It sounded shocked. _Did that kid block your mind?_

"Phew," Fuuta sighed, his eyes returning back to the original shade of brown, "So the first time wasn't a fluke. You have been trained to block your mind and you do remember it when I did it the first time." Lucas glanced around nervously and looked as though he was about to take off when Fuuta grabbed him by the shoulder to prevent the kid from running.

"Sorry but this time, I'm going full out." Before Lucas could respond, Fuuta's eyes turned a hard cold blue color and his powers increased. His psychic ability penetrate through Lucas' defense so hard and sharp it made the boy cry out in pain and slump to the ground, unconscious.

_Wow, you didn't need to go full out… you could've killed him if you weren't careful._

"Well, I learned the hard way that this kid is determined to hide whatever he has in his mind," Fuuta muttered as he this time slowly and gently pushed his mind into the sleeping Lucas. The defenses were gone for sure. "Let's see what sort of secrets he has."

…

_Eterna City…_

It has been over an hour since the chairman explained how Tory came across these papers while the boy chimed in only to give a couple of details that the chairman couldn't explain. Cynthia and Gardenia grabbed the file of papers and started to skim through what the documents have to offer. Of course, to Gardenia, she couldn't make heads or tail of anything that the black font was trying to convey. There were so many strange symbols (as though they were in codes) that it was no doubt that whatever these papers were conveying must be very secretive to make no sense. Cynthia reread the paper in her hand with a frown upon her face. Gardenia couldn't tell if the Sinnoh Champion was angry or was in deep concentration.

"Ahem," the chairman coughed for attention and Cynthia merely flicker her eyes up and toward the noise before looking back at the papers. The chairman decided to continue despite this lack of response. "As you can see most of these information seemed to pertain about the" you know what" that was under your care. However, there were some things that seemed to be about some other huge project –"

"Wait a minute!" Cynthia said, standing up and almost knocking the cups to the ground if it wasn't for Gardenia. She was holding a thick page document and her eyes seemed to be wide with shock as she looked at it.

"What?" the chairman said. Tory and Gardenia peered at the paper and to both of their surprise, Cynthia wasn't shocked from reading some number or anything; she was shock from seeing a strange picture. It was a snapshot of a slab of brown rock with carvings of three fairy looking pixies in it. Tory didn't really see why Cynthia was overreacting over something like this but whatever it was, it made the woman angry and a little bit scared.

"I need to go," Cynthia announced and started to put on her jacket.

"What?" the chairman getting up as well though it didn't make much of an impact due to his short stature. "Cynthia, what about this?"

"I need to go," Cynthia repeated. She took the thick stack of paper that she was reading, leaving everything else behind, "Gardenia, take care of the rest."

"Oh, ummm," Gardenia said, a little bit unease at the situation, "All right then." Tory and Gardenia stared at each other, both confused at what had just happened.

"Wait, Cynthia," the chairman said as the Sinnoh Champion walked right out of the café. "Where are you going?" Cynthia paused for a moment at the door as though she was, for some reason, hesitating.

"Home." With that Cynthia was gone.

**Author Notes**

I can't believe none of you guys mention about what happened to the Alex and Riley part of the arc. I totally forgot about them until this chapter. (Sorry Riley!)

Anyways, I didn't want Dawn to be disqualified but I couldn't really see any other way if there was a situation like that. Plus, this would help move along the arc to the next chapter.

Interesting things are going on everywhere and why would Cynthia be so worried? XP

Oh yeah for those who watched the new BW anime, Ash got two of the three starters! I wouldn't be surprised if he gets the last starter too seeing how in the spoiler preview showed that starter was flirting with Pikachu. And the next episode introduced the first Gym!

And in the manga, Pokemon Special is starting to do the BW series. But they seemed to be trying to wrap up the HGSS series too quickly. I wish they would take their time and make it as good as they always did.

Oh, anybody played BW yet? Just want to know if it is pretty good. I heard the soundtrack is pretty nice.

Moving on, let's thank my reviewers.

…

**Furryfur **(lol. Thanks for the review.)

**hydro-serpent58** (well, the anime has some pluses and downs. Though, I think some of the attacks look now seemed a whole lot better. I'm going to be patient and decide after the next episode before I really say anything. Thanks for the review. :D)

**shiny evee4**

**Ketchum Kid** (lol. Buneary loves to cause trouble. XP Yeah, I have to agree that the BW starters are probably the worst of all the generations, especially their final evolutions. Thanks for reviewing. :D)

**Yaersulf**

**dark5523**

**Light-Sakura**

**SagaAuraMana**

**Banana** (New people just get so confusing. XP At least in my other story, introducing the 'old' characters will help when reading this story.)

**Solyeuse **(I have no excuse because there are no battle chapters? Are you talking about my grammar errors? O.O? Anywho, I probably won't be able to find time to revise chapters for now. Thanks for the help and the review.)

**RWT**

**Pikana**

**gg121** (Hmmm, new director might explain the different color in Ash's eyes… lol. I randomly update so don't worry about it. Thanks for the review.)

…

That's it from me and remember, just because I haven't updated for so long doesn't mean I have quit writing.

See you in the next chapter.

**-JapanDreamer**


	64. Breaking Into One's Mind

**Disclaimer: I don't know why people have to put up disclaimers if it is obvious that they don't own Pokemon. And I'm one of them.**

Hey, guys! WOOO! We finally have another update. :D I've finally finish taking a lot of tests so I used this time to update.

It's a little bit short but the good news is that we're moving on to the next arc! Can you guess where our heroes are going next? XP

Anyways, enjoy the chapter!

**Chapter 61:**

"Dawn, open the door!" Damion said, pounding the door he was talking about with his fist. The door, however, remained closed. Dawn had locked herself in one of the supply storage area and refused to open the door for Damion. "Dawn, Dawn! DAWN!" Damion yelled, causing more people to stare. Most of them were shaking their heads, thinking it was some sort of lovers quarrel.

"Damion I need some time for myself!" Dawn's muffled voice said through the thick door. "Leave me alone!" She sounded as though she was trying hard to speak through tears.

"Well open the door!" Damion yelled, not comprehending a word Dawn was saying. As he continued to yell, Johanna appeared right next to him.

"Damion, how is she?" Johanna asked the blond hair and angry teenager. A couple of coordinators passing by were whispering in excitement and pointed at the legendary coordinator. Of course, Johanna wasn't paying attention to her fans and was more concern with her daughter.

"She won't listen to me," Damion grumbled as he crossed his arms across his chest. He had a sour look on his face.

"Well, give her some space," Johanna said, understanding how Dawn was feeling. Being disqualified and unable to move to the second round is quite a painful experience, especially for a new coordinator. Johanna lightly knocked on the door and said, "Dawn, we're going to go back to the Pokemon Contest. I'll come back in a bit to see if you're okay." There was no response but Johanna knew that Dawn heard her.

"Wait we're just going to leave?" Damion grumbled, looking unhappy.

"I know you care about Dawn," Johanna said simply, "But she needs a bit of time to herself. At least for now." Damion stared at the door as though he rather start pounding again but another look for Johanna and Damion reluctantly agreed.

"By the way, where is Lucas?" Johanna asked Damion.

"Wasn't he with you?" Damion said, not really paying attention to the question.

"No," Johanna said slowly, "He went after you when you were chasing Dawn. I thought he was with you." Damion shrugged his shoulders in reply. "That's strange," Johanna said, rubbing her head in confusion as she looked at the entire crowd of people around them. "Where did he go?"

…

"Let's see now…" Fuuta thought as he felt his mind solidify inside of Lucas' mind. Delving into a person's mind was not as easy as it sounded. The rule was to 'see but don't meddle' policy. Any harmless poking around can affect how a person thinks, the personality, memories, everything. That's why the person usually needed to be unconscious before trying to poke through his or her mind. If awake, that person would try to unconsciously resist which would result in major problems. At least when the person is asleep, their barriers are down. Of course, the first time Fuuta tried to go into Lucas' mind, it was suppose to be just on the surface but apparently, Lucas had resisted far better than Fuuta thought. What's more, Lucas managed to pull Fuuta into his mind which was something that not anyone can do.

_Door, door_, Fuuta thought as he passed by thoughts and seemed to be more interested in what lie in the deepest part – the memories. Fuuta wondered why (and most importantly how) Lucas pulled him and let him witness a flash of that memory. More importantly, the name on the gravestone… _was that real?_

Finally, Fuuta found his conscious facing a large dark energy. The whole thing was chained and hidden away as though trying to escape from sight (figuratively speaking). "There you are," Fuuta grinned. With his strength he pushed straight into the dark energy and found himself in a room.

However, the white room was fuzzy and faded as though a smeared and faded picture. Fuuta had finally entered into Lucas' memories. All around were flashes of moving pictures and Fuuta immediately knew that there were just brief looks of memories stored in here. The real work in extracting and analyzing the thoughts was going to be a lot harder.

_Something was wrong_. Fuuta could feel it the moment he entered this 'room'. The place… it was too… clean. There was no sense of warmth and the pictures… why were there so little? Suddenly, Fuuta felt his mind losing control of the situation. He felt as though a sharp knife was trying to slice the ties between his physical and mentality. Memories that were not his started to slam into his head – blood, faces of people, a strange green light, and, for some reason, a face of a blind girl.

"Fuuta", a voice called out, "Get out of there!" Fuuta snapped out of his dazed moment and immediately realized that he was being sucked into what appeared to be a black hole which was swallowing the entire room.

"Damn!" Fuuta flinched and immediately sped back and out just in time. The next thing he knew, he was on the ground and dripping in cold sweat. He felt the air gone out of his lungs and gasped several times in pain. Next to Fuuta was Lucas who was still sleeping, as though he didn't realize what had just happened.

Are you okay? The voice said again. This time, the voice had materialized into what appeared to be a purple flame with green spheres residing. The flame had what appeared to be a weird face like it was insane - the Pokemon – Spirtomb. "I started panicking when you're started to shake out of control."

_I did?_ Fuuta thought, pressing his hand to his forehead. The feel was cool to his touch. _Wait,_ Fuuta said through his mind, staring at Spirtomb, _were you worried about me?_

_Wha-? No I wasn't!_ Spirtomb said, flustered. _I just wanted to make sure you don't die before you pay back the debt you owe me!_

"I spilled ketchup on that key by accident," Fuuta sighed, "Are you telling me you still have a grudge over that?"

_YES!_ The voice yelled as though Fuuta's question was ridiculous. _You realize how long it'll take to remove that stain?_

_Of course I know_, Fuuta snapped, _I was the one who had to clean it after you yelled at me for hours!_

_Oh, quit making excuses!_

Fuuta groaned as Spiritomb continued to yell and yell inside of his head. Fuuta turned to look at Lucas again who was still snoring softly as though not a care in the world. That was the first time Fuuta had experienced anything like that in a person's head.

"Lucas… who are you?"

…

"And so, that concludes the appeal part of the Contest. Wait for a few minutes and we'll have the scores up and determine who will move on to the next round." Marian (the host of the contest) bowed and left to the sound of applauses. Mr. Contesta and Mr. Suzuiko and Keira (who still had a guilty look on her face and was holding Buneary) all left the stage. Fantina had a scowl on her face (she wasn't happy with the verdict that Dawn received either) and only removed it just long enough to smile and wave to the audience.

"In the end, none of them came back," Ven said, sighing as he looked at the empty seats next to him. "Hope everything is okay." Ven and Ashe couldn't really enjoy the rest of the contest as much as the audience was. But then again, none of them knew what had happened to Dawn.

"It shouldn't be," Ashe said, pouting with her arms across her chest, "Dawn had to be disqualified and it wasn't her fault."

"I know that," Ven said, groaning as he took off his hat and scratched his blonde hair to think of something smart to say, "I just hope… well, you know…" He finally gave up with a sigh. He absently mindedly took a Poke ball from his belt and started to press the button in the center, making the Poke ball enlarge and shrink over and over again.

"Say, can I see your Pigeot again," Ashe said, suddenly sounding interested. Ven's grip of the Poke ball almost slipped from the surprise request.

"What?" Ven said, his mouth gaping from the sudden random question, "Here?"

"Well, not here," Ashe said quickly, "you know, outside."

"Um, I don't know," Ven said, shrugging "Is there a particular reason?"

"Oh no," Ashe said quickly, "It's just that, um, I like bird Pokemon." She said the last part so very timidly. Ven raised one of his eyebrows but shrugged.

"Okay."

"Really?" Ashe said, perked up with excitement.

"Yeah, sure, why not?" Ven said shrugging, "It's not a really big deal."

…

Dawn rocked back and forth in the small storage room. It was really dark and smell of cleaning stuff. She wanted to leave but at the same time, couldn't help but continue to mope. This was going to be her first contest that wasn't going to be blown up into pieces like last time. At the very least, Dawn wanted to perform her very best but it was all ruined. Tears sprang from her eyes again and she broke down into another sob.

Suddenly, there was a knock on the door.

It must be mom, Dawn thought as she tried to hide another sniffle and rub her red eyes. Dawn took a deep breath and opened the door. However, instead of coming face to face with a blue hair woman, Dawn was standing face to face with a brown wavy hair woman with a stylish raincoat over her white tank top and black miniskirt.

"Hi, Dawn," Keira said, looking timidly in. In her hands was the very same Buneary who caused this whole trouble for Dawn.

"Oh, hello Keira, is the judging done?" Dawn said, trying hard to put up a smile but Keira could tell that she was still depressed.

"Look," Keira said, quickly, "I'm really, really sorry for what this Buneary had done. I should've kept my eyes on her better."

"No, it's okay," Dawn said, "Really. It was just a bunch of unfortunate events all mashed together." Keira stared for a moment at Dawn before breaking into a small sad smile.

"You're so mature, just like your mother." Keira said, shaking her head. Buneary continued to squirm in Keira's arms. Dawn looked up and gave a tiny smile as well.

"I try…"

"Anyways," Keira said, thinking a divergence in topic is needed, "I noticed that Buneary really enjoyed being on stage and performing. In a sense, Buneary is really grateful for the opportunity that I didn't have the time to give to her." Dawn looked at Keira, puzzled at where Keira was going with this. "Now, I've realized that Buneary needs to be punished for her action but at the same time, I realized that I don't have to time to make sure she has learned her lesson. Since she caused you so much trouble, I say you get to decide what her punishment is."

"Wait, what are you getting at?" Dawn said, sounding a bit confused.

"Dawn," Keira said in a tone of authority, "I want to give you Buneary so you can train her to help you become the best coordinator."

…

_Close to Iron Island and a couple of days ago…_

On the ship, Riley has expertly climbed up with a rope given to him by Byron. Lucario was waiting on the small speedboat, not wishing to join in the conversation of these men.

"Riley, how have you been doing?" Byron said, grinning as his large muscle hand shook Riley's small and thin hand. The two men were so different from each other. Byron was large and obviously worked out, not to mention a bit on the grimy side. Riley was thin and his blue suit was clean with not a single spot of dirt on it.

"I'm doing fine," Riley said in a soft polite way. His eyes lingered on the sullen Shieldon who had a frown on its face. "I see you still have trouble bonding with Shieldon."

"Bwhahaha!" Byron laughed good naturally, "Don't worry, Shieldon will love me in no time." Riley's face had a 'I highly doubt that' look but the man decided not to shatter Byron's wishful thinking.

"I've received your call about a favor you need from me and it was a private matter?" Riley said. It wasn't rare for Byron to ask for favors, but this sounded pretty urgent, even more than usual.

"Yeah, he's right here."

"He?" Riley repeated and noticed for the first time that Byron was pointing to a young blue hair boy with… no way. Riley saw the ears – Lucario ears and they twitched as though uncomfortable. Alex shifted his weight back and forth, unsure how to respond to this random man. For a moment, Riley didn't say anything. His face didn't show a single bit of shock but the silence was. "Byron, is this some sort of joke?"

"Joke? No!" Byron said, sounding offended, "Cynthia picked up this kid and asked me to ask you for some help. Oh, by the way, the kid's name is Alex."

"The Sinnoh Champion asking me for help?" Riley said, sounding disbelief. He continued to stare at Alex with interest. "You do realize that I'm simply a man who spends his time in solitude."

"Oh come on," Byron scoffed, "you would've been made Gym Leader if it wasn't for your stupid choice in life of solitude."

"At least your son was made Gym Leader because of my choice," Riley said, tilting his hat so that the shadow blocked the bit of sunlight. "You should be relieved."

"Relieve? Bah, my son is completely useless," Byron said, acting a bit unhappy and Riley decided not to pursue the subject anymore.

"May I ask what kind of help?" Riley said to change topic. "I'm not a scientist and I know nothing more than you from the fact that this boy looks like a Lucario."

"Well uh," Byron said, sounding a bit confuse now as though he didn't know either, "You see, this kid has the same sort of ability as you do."

"Really?" Riley said, this time his face showing disbelief. "Are you sure?"

"Well, er, no," Byron admitted, "Cynthia said he does but like you, I'm kind of in doubt. She said something about, needing to understand what exactly is Alex capable of." Riley turned to study Alex again and there was a silence that filled the air. Alex pulled as much courage he had left and looked directly into Riley's eyes. Both didn't back down until finally, Riley gave a nod and sigh.

"All right then," Riley said turning to Byron, "I trust Cynthia's judgment but I'm going to have to test him to see if I can really help him or not."

"Great," Byron sighed in relief and slapped on Alex's back. "Well then, I'll come and visit you in a couple of days to see how things are."

"Come on then," Riley sighed and motioned Alex to follow him. Riley gave Alex the rope that was used earlier. Let's go to Iron Island."

…

"Lucas, there you are!" Damion said, sighing in frustration and bopped the guy's head. "Where were you? We've been looking for you everywhere!" Damion and Johanna were searching for Lucas the whole time, only to finally find him wandering around in a deserted hallway.

"Sorry," Lucas said flinching and rubbing his head, "I fell asleep."

"Really?" Damion said, his tone with disbelief, "You just fell asleep."

"Well… yeah," Lucas said, sounding a bit puzzled. He remembered waking up and finding himself on the ground in a deserted corner of the hall. He didn't remember anything before then except that he was running around, trying to find Dawn. Lucas didn't know if he was being paranoid but he got the feeling that someone was watching him.

"Well, now that that is over," Johanna sighed, relieve that they found Lucas, "I need to get back to Dawn so would you guys wait here and don't go wandering off?"

"Johanna!" A French accent voice cried out. The three turned their heads to see Fantina running toward them. "Johanna!" Fantina said again, when she was closer, "Dawn and Keira wanted to tell you something."

"Dawn is feeling better now?" Johanna asked quickly.

"Um, I zink so," Fantina said, shrugging, "Zey 're both waiting outside for you."

"For me?" Johanna repeated. "All right. I wonder what they want…"

"Come on Lucas," Damion said, pulling Lucas upright and pulling on Lucas' white scarf, "let's see what Dawn has to say."

"Arghh," Lucas gagged as Damion continued to pull the scarf as though it was some kind of leash.

Hiding behind a wall, Fuuta took a glance at the clumsy Lucas. The boy (as strange as it seemed) was definitely hiding something and Fuuta was going to get to the bottom of this, no matter what. He grabbed the phone that was hanging next to him and dialed a number. Fuuta took off his headphones and placed the phone to his ear.

_What are you doing?_ Spirtomb asked.

"Shhh!" Fuuta hissed and ignored Spirtomb.

There was a long ringing tone before the other side picked up. "Hey, it's me," Fuuta said. There was a pause. "Yeah, just calling to see how you're doing over there. How's Goldenrod?... No I'm still broke from the last restaurant I took you out to eat… Yeah, yeah, yeah, listen I'm calling cause I need you to come back… why? Well," Fuuta looked at the direction where Lucas had left, "let's just say your mother's great aunt's half brother's son's nephew's cousin twice removed is here and wants to meet you..."

**Author's Notes**

Ah man. I wonder what's going to happen now. So many things are going on and I hope everybody can keep up.

Like I said before, next chapter is moving on to a whole new arc. Be prepare cuz we're going to Veilstone! Now I just need to find all the OCs that are going to show up there. Lol.

Anyways, in the BW anime, any thoughts? I hope something exciting happens soon.

And how about you Harry Potter fans? Saw the first part of the movie? To me it was okay, but wasn't exciting enough. Probably because I know what'll happen. Lol.

And BW Pokemon Special manga. Got some good potential and I look forward to see how it plays out. Love how Black and White are introduced.

Anyways, let's move on to thank my reviewers.

…

**Ketchum Kid** (lol. Thanks for reviewing)

**Solyeuse **(I'm aliveeeee! Lol. Thanks for reviewing and understanding. Hope you did well on your exams. :D)

**The DL of the Sith** (thanks for reviewing)

**hydro-serpent58** (the Pokemon that fought against Pikachu for Ash's attention? It is the water starter. The strange thing is that the water starter is male. O.o)

**Light-Sakura**

**Pikana**

**Furryfur**

**SagaAuraMana**

**Yaersulf**

**Banana **(Turning point? Like what? Anyways, thanks for reviewing.)

**Ambriel **(Hopefully, I can get all of the legendary Pokemon fit into this story but I'm still working on that aspect. Can't be too sure though. Thanks for reviewing)

**Jarkes**

**gg121 **(Hey you're back! Lol. Lucas learned a bit of blocking minds but that aspect is going to be further explained in the other story. Thanks for reviewing.)

**RWT**

…

Okay, that's it from me. Thanks for reading and I'll see you in the next chapter.

**-JapanDreamer**


	65. Moving On

**Disclaimer:**

Hey guys! After a whole month, I'm actually updating! :D

Well, finals are over so now I have plenty of time to update. In fact, expect another one very soon. Hail winter breaks! Lol. Speaking of which, I wish everybody happy holidays. Stay safe if you're going on a trip.

Moving on, I noticed that some of you didn't get the last comment Fuuta said in the previous chapter. I forgot to mention it in my author notes but please refer to chapter 15. It'll make more sense.

Anyways, like I promise, our protagonists are moving to Veilstone next. No new OCs in this chapter but the next for sure. While I'm on that subject, if you know for sure that you have an OC you wanted to appear in Veilstone, let me know.

Also, something important is going to happen!

Enjoy!

**Chapter 62:**

Dawn could hear the cheering from inside the Contest hall. Although her heart ached for not being able to participate, Dawn fully accepted the outcome and knew that it was time to move on. She had changed back into her red winter clothes. In her hands was the Pokemon egg that she got back in Eterna City from Rald. Of course, nothing has happened to the egg yet and still remained dormant, but Dawn knew that with enough time and care, she'll be able to get a new Pokemon. Dawn was staring out into the clouds and was wondering what kind of Pokemon could be in the egg when Lucas, Damion, her mom, and Fantina came out of the Pokemon Contest. "Hey guys!" Dawn said, smiling cheerfully. She still had a depressed look in her eye but at least she wasn't crying anymore. "What took you guys so long?"

"Lazy here was asleep the whole time," Damion grumbled, unhappy that he was considered to be late. Lucas on the other hand looked worryingly at Dawn.

"Are you… okay now?" Lucas asked timidly, his puppy eyes looking questioningly at Dawn.

"Well, I'm a lot better than before," Dawn said, sighing a bit, "But don't worry about that. Right now, we need to get moving. The next contest is in Solaceon in two weeks. I need to start getting ready for it. I need to train my new Pokemon."

"New Pokemon?" Damion and Lucas repeated.

"Yes," Dawn said, happy at her friends' surprised look. She revealed a Poke ball in her hand and opened it. "Come out Buneary!"

"Miii!" Buneary squealed as it stretched out its ears as though warming up.

"Isn't this Buneary Keria's?" Johanna asked, shocked as well.

"Of course, mom," Dawn said as Buneary hopped around like playing some sort of game, "Although, I couldn't just accept Buneary from her so we agreed that she'll take care of my Aipom." Dawn remembered trading her Aipom for the cute bunny. Keira promised to take good care of Aipom until the next time Dawn returned. "Anyways, Buneary was good at appeals, but I really want to take the time to train her."

"Hold on a minute, we can't go to Solaceon yet," Damion said, realizing what was going on. "I need to battle Fantina again! I still haven't gotten my gym badge."

"Battle _MOI_ again?" Fantina said in a scoffing tone. "Not in a hundred years!"

"You were lucky the first time!" Damion retorted, "I'll definitely beat you this time."

"Why," Johanna interjected so that there wouldn't be another heated argument again, "don't you challenge the gym leader in Veilstone City?"

"Veilstone? But that's not in Solaceon," Lucas said, not understanding what was the point.

"Yes, that's true," Johanna said, "but the Veilstone is very close to Solaceon. You could battle the gym leader there and Dawn can train as well for her contest. Both of you will benefit from it."

"Hmm, I like that idea," Damion said, "I'm already tired of just sitting around here doing nothing. Fine, we're going to Veilstone City!"

"Sheesh," Dawn sighed, "You're always deciding for all of us. Very well, we shall travel to Veilstone first." No one in the group, however, noticed Lucas and his pale face at the word Veilstone. The name of the city gave him shivers down his spine. Veilstone…

"And-!" Damion turned back to Fantina and had a fiery look in his eyes, "I'll get stronger and challenge you again! I'll show you that I can and will win!" Fantina folded her arms but had an amused look on her face.

"Very vell," Fantina said, grinning, "I'll keep zat in mind ven you return. As a parting gift and apology for vat happened earlier…" Fantina took out her Poke ball and revealed a Drifblim. The giant purple balloon Pokemon cast a huge shadow on everybody. "Drifblim will take you to Veilstone."

"Wowwwww!" Lucas exclaimed as he stared in amazement at the giant purple balloon reached out one of its paper hand for Lucas to shake. It was amazing how fast Lucas can make friends with almost any Pokemon. "You're giving us Drifblim?"

"Borrowing," Fantina corrected the boy, "Drifblim will take vou to Veilstone City. The least I could give vou for ze trouble. Speaking of which, I need to go now. Got a contest to judge. Bye!" With a swish of her purple dress and an air kiss from her mouth, Fantina rushed back into Pokemon Contest building. "Au revoir!"

Johanna, Dawn, Damion, and Lucas were the only ones left outside now.

"Well, that means you have to go now," Johanna said, looking at her daughter. "Be safe okay?"

"Don't worry mother," Dawn smiled and gave Johanna a hug, "I'll be fine. What is there to worry about?"

"HEY!" Damion yelled at Lucas who was jumping up and down around the balloon Pokemon and looking for some sort of ladder to climb up, "That's not how you're suppose to ride a Drifblim!"

"Really?" Lucas said, puzzled. His hands were stretched out as though asking Drifblim for a piggy back ride. "Then how do you ride on one?"

"Well it's… First you need to… And then there's… You have to learn by yourself!" Damion finally said, frustrated.

"Okay, maybe a bit of worrying should be needed," Dawn said, sighing at the duo as they continued to fail miserably. Buneary immediately ignored everybody and used Bounce to fly high into the air before landing on top of Drifblim's head like some sort of crown.

"Miii!" Buneary squealed, excited for the new adventure it was going to take on.

"Great," Damion grumbled, "Unlike some of us, we can't jump that high." Drifblim looked at the three trainers below with amusement before taking a huge breath and then, "Foooooooo!" Driblim immediately deflated like a balloon, becoming flat enough so that its head was closer to the ground. Buneary giggled as though it just went down a large slide.

"Answer solved," Dawn said to the shocked look on Damion's face and sat next to her Buneary. Lucas immediately clambered after Dawn. "Come on, let's go."

"Stay safe! All three of you!" Johanna called out as she waved good bye.

"Hey wait!" Someone yelled. Dawn, Damion, and Lucas turned around to see Ven and Ashe running towards them. Flying over Ven was a large Pigeot. "You're not just leaving without saying goodbye right?" Ven looked sternly at Lucas who immediately looked down in embarrassment.

"Um," Dawn finally said, a bit confused, "You guys are…?"

"Oh sorry," Ven immediately grinned, unable to stay angry, "My bad. I'm Ven – the guy who met Lucas yesterday. And this is Ashe. We were both cheering for you." Ven took off his hat and gave a short bow and then pointed to the young girl next to him. He suddenly spied the little Buneary sitting next to Dawn. "Your 'Aipom' was amazing! I really loved the appeal. For sure, you'll win next time." Ven gave Dawn a peace sign and grinned again. Buneary giggled at its new nickname and waved at Ven.

"Actually," Dawn said, uneasy at the misunderstanding. "_Buneary_ isn't-"

"We got to get going!" Damion said, annoyed at this, "We need to get stronger and staying here won't help."

"Sorry Ven, Ashe," Lucas said, his voice filled with embarrassment, "I forgot to say good bye but we have to go now."

"Awww," Ashe frowned as she folded her arms across her chest, "I'm going to miss you guys!" Ven frowned too as though trying to decide how to react to the situation.

"Alright then," Ven finally said with a smile on his face as he looked up at Lucas, "Lucas, stay sharp okay? Don't go off and do anything stupid."

"Okay," Lucas grinned ridiculously as well.

With the final goodbyes, Fantina's Drifblim inhaled again and expanded to its full size. With that it shot up into the air, slowly turning into a small black dot against the blue sky.

"SEE YOU!"

…

Cynthia was riding on her Garchomp at a much faster pace than usual. Trees passed by like green streaks. The dirt flew into the air as her Garchomp plowed through it. Her hometown is still far away but Cynthia knew that at the speed she was going, she'll be there in a day or so. Engraved in her mind, Cynthia could still see the paper with her hometown's name on top of it. If there was one thing she will not stand, that is to put her family in danger. Her gray eyes were still flashing with anger.

She had received a call earlier from Byron, stating that Alex had already made it to his new teacher. Cynthia didn't want to leave the kid so soon but the situation called for it. Especially with what she had to deal with now…

She had called earlier to her grandma and so far, nothing seemed to be out of place. However, Cynthia wasn't going to take any chances. After the experience in Eterna City, Cynthia wouldn't be surprise if they had already infiltrated and were hiding in the shadows.

"I'm not going to let you ruin one more town."

…

"Commander Saturn," the army of space grunts said as they saluted the blue hair leader. Saturn ignored them and continued to walk down the white dome shape hall. He had just come back from the lake. It was such a beautiful place – blue water and all. Still, there was still work that needed to be done. The deadline for the project was weeks ago. Cyrus wasn't going to be happy if Saturn kept lazing about. Saturn arrived back into his office and sure enough, the phone was already ringing off the hook.

"Yes," Saturn said, pushing the intercom button.

"Commander Saturn," the voice said, "I have found the person you asked me to search." Saturn's heart skipped a beat at those words. "The last known place she was spotted was at Hearthome City."

"Any ideas if she is still there?" Saturn asked.

"Actually… she …" The voice explained in further details and the more Saturn heard, the bigger his smile got.

"Perfect," Saturn said as he looked over at the still unfinished machine. "We got plenty of time to make a special warm welcome for her."

…

_Within Iron Island…_

"Get up," Riley said as he watched in front of him Alex who was on his hands and knees. It was only the first day and the poor boy was exhausted. Lucario was standing in front of the boy. The blue Pokemon's black paws were still up as though it was ready to spar again. "Your body's strength is lacking more than a normal person would. We need to build up your stamina before we can try anything."

Alex gasped for air in response as he slowly and painfully got back up again. Almost immediately, Lucario charged forward and immediately punched the kid's shoulder. It was a light punch and for most people, it would only cause them to stumble. However, in Alex's case, it immediately sent him sprawling back onto the ground. This time, Alex whimpered in pain and something red came out of his mouth. Riley's eyebrows shot up with concern and immediately rushed to the boy. The bleeding from the boy's mouth stopped to a trickle but Alex looked as though he wasn't going to be getting up anytime soon. Riley couldn't help but feel confuse. Exactly what has this kid been through being in so much pain after one hour of light sparing?

"We'll take a break," Riley muttered as he lifted Alex off the ground and onto his shoulder. The poor boy was too exhausted to complain and even fell asleep. Lucario looked slightly guilty but Riley showed a – It's not your fault – look. "I guess the first thing we need to do is get him something to eat."

…

"Wow!" Lucas exclaimed as Drifblim continued to rise above the clouds. It was an exhilarating feeling to be able to feel the wind blowing and such a new experience. Lucas he his arms out as though he was spreading his wings out to fly.

"At this rate, we'll get to Veilstone in no time!" Damion said. "Where are we anyways?" Damion fumbled with his Pokedex and noticed that they were almost on Route 215 which would immediately lead them to Veilstone City.

"What's the rush?" Dawn said as she, like Lucas, was enjoying the breeze and the scenery. Her black hair danced along with the wind and glistened under the sunlight. "It's such a nice day."

"I need to get my next gym badge," Damion said, in an impatient tone. "I lost at Hearthome so I need to catch up."

"Oh? So you're admitting that Fantina is stronger?" Dawn said with a sly grin.

"N-no I'm not!" the blonde hair boy replied as his face turned red. He looked away as though he didn't want to have this discussion any further. And Dawn decided not to press any further though she still had a hard time to hide her smile.

Earlier, Buneary was jumping around happily but that was annoying the transporter so Dawn had to return the small bunny.

Suddenly, there was a large rumbling noise.

"Lucas," Damion said without even bothering to check out where the noise came from. "I know you're hungry but can't you wait until later?"

"That's not my stomach," Lucas said in a puzzled voice. Damion looked over at Lucas as though the kid was joking. The rumbling noise occurred again, only this time louder.

"Oh no," Dawn said, her eyes wide eyed with shock. Damion and Lucas followed Dawn's eyes and noticed that in front of them was a large blanket of gray clouds. Brilliant flashes of light shined within the depths of the dark clouds. This time the rumbling was so loud that it jarred the three trainers' teeth. Drifblim shook with nervousness, causing Lucas to tumble around.

"A thunderstorm!" Dawn exclaimed. "We need to get to the ground." The clouds were coming closer and any hesitancy will result in an unpleasant ride in the rain.

"Can't we ride this out?" Damion asked though he looked at the large clouds with uneasiness.

"I rather not take my chances in dying," Dawn said. She looked down to see Drifblm's eyes. "Drifblim, take us down. And fast." The balloon Pokemon immediately started its decent from the clouds. However, the gray clouds were coming in fast. Before Dawn, Lucas, or Damion could figure out what was going on, heavy rain started to pour down on them… and fast.

"ARGHHH!" Damion yelled but his voice was drowned out by the loud booming of thunder. Lightning flashed across the sky. Lucas whimpered and covered his ears with his hands and closed his eyes. Dawn gripped on tight to Drifblim who was now losing control. They were moving to and fro with the strong winds that were now unpleasant. Drifblim continued down with its decent but it was becoming more and more of a huge drop, giving Dawn, Damion, and Lucas an unpleasant feeling in their stomache. Finally, just when they were just about twenty feet above the ground, there was a large gust of wind, causing Drifblim to spin. Dawn lost her grip and found herself grabbing onto nothing now.

The next thing Dawn, Damion, and Lucas knew, they were all falling into the darkness below them.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

**Author's Notes**

Oh dear, I wonder what'll happen now… lol.

Sorry that this chapter is kind of short. Apparently, I'm busier than what I originally thought. Still, expect a very fast update next year. :D

Also, the next contest is coming up and even though it'll be a while, give me heads up if you have an OC you want to put in.

Let's thank my reviewers before I go now.

…

**Assassin42**

**Furryfur**

**hydro-serpent58** (lol. I got lost writing that part. XP thanks for the review.)

**SagaAuraMana**

**Light-Sakura**

**Ketchum Kid** (I really do think that the anime is running out of fresh ideas. I mean, you noticed that they're moving at a much faster pace from each city?)

**shiny eevee4**

**Pikana**

**The DL of the Sith** (thanks for the review. :D)

**Jarkes**

**Solyeuse** (Lol. I'm still alive and in much better shape. XP Yay! Not much error spotted this time! Thanks for the review and I hope that your exam results are very good when you get them back.)

**LyraXEthan**

**Banana** (lol. Fuuta's phone call is a foreshadowing of something that'll come up in the future. Muhahaha. :D Thanks for the review.)

**gg121** (lol. Your comment cracked me up. XD thanks for the review.)

…

All right, that's it from me.

Happy Holidays and I'll see you next year. XP

**-JapanDreamer**


	66. Team Galactic's Kidnapping

**Disclaimer: Lol. Even with the New Year, I will still not own Pokemon.**

Hey guys, I guess you guys are all shock and are rubbing your eyes in amazement. That's right it's another update! And so fast! And way longer than the previous one! O.O

WE'RE ALMOST TO 1000 REVIEWS! Just want to let you guys know. :D

Truthfully, I wouldn't have updated again so fast but because of my mistake earlier for double posting and not wanting to say the word 'sorry' continuously, I've decided to write another chapter as an apology. I would also like to thank the people who reviewed to me so I noticed my error. Think of it as my gift to you for the holidays.

Also, we have an OC here! Her name is Celest Fair by **Yuuki reborn 10**. Sorry it took so long to have her here.

Anyways, enjoy the chapter!

Also, if you want to give me a gift for the holidays, please review! That would be the greatest gift to give me.

**Chapter 63:**

Dawn's hair was blown up in the air like a torch of black flames as she continued to fall down. It was like sky diving, except no parachute harnessed to their back. All Dawn could see through the thick rain were two shadows next to her (no doubt both of the shadows were Damion and Lucas) and a dark stretchy ground coming toward them really fast.

"Staravia!" Damion yelled, sputtering out water that went into his mouth. Damion opened his Poke ball and a burst of white light appeared before revealing a Staravia who looked a little bit shocked at the situation it was sent out. "Help!" The bird grabbed for Damion's shoulder and the boy reached out to grab Dawn as well. Of course, two people's weight was too much for the small bird and they continued to plunge down.

"Drifloon!" Lucas yelled. The purple balloon Pokemon tried to grab Lucas' hands with its string like arms but the wind was so powerful, Lucas was pulling Drifloon down more than Drifloon pulling him up. It was too late now to try and decrease speed for they were all about the hit the ground in matters of seconds.

"ARGHHHHHHHH!"

Splat! Splat! Splat!

Splat? Dawn, to her surprise, landed on something soft but sticky. Her body hurt a lot as though thousands of small needles had pierced her skin but it wasn't as bad as she had envisioned the entire time. Of course, she got a mouthful of the slimy stuff in her mouth.

"Bleaugh!" Dawn gasped as she spitted out the stuff. She looked around and noticed that the very mysterious thing that saved them from their fall was a field of thick and deep mud. In fact Dawn was already sinking from it. She noticed the egg in front of her sinking and quickly grabbed it before it could disappear from her sight.

"ICK!" Damion said as he too spat at the mud from his mouth. He was covered from head to toe with the muck that he looked like some sort of melted chocolate ice cream. Dawn doesn't want to know what she looked like after seeing Damion's appearance. Damion's Staravia and Lucas' Drifloon were all flying above them, worried as to what happened to them.

"Whaa!" Lucas whimpered as he got up. He too was covered in mud. His large sad gray eyes were the only thing that could be seen through his entire brown appearance. Dawn couldn't help and started to laugh. It was such a huge relief after what she been through, thinking they were going to die. "Wh-what's so funny?" Lucas asked as Dawn tried to hide her giggling.

"You are!" Damion said and threw a handful of mud straight at Lucas' face. "You look ridiculous like that!" The force caused Lucas' head to recoiled.

"So do you!" Dawn said, defending Lucas and Dawn, too, threw a handful of mud straight at Damion's head.

"OW!" Damion said, rubbing his head. Lucas shook his head and flecks of mud flew everywhere.

"Come on now," Dawn said, struggling to get up, "WE need to get out of here. The rain is going to make it even harder to move around." What she said was true. The rain pounding onto the surface of the mud caused it to become sticker and more viscous, making even lifting their feet up difficult.

"Urgh," Damion groaned, "Fantina's gift turned out to be useless now." He too struggled to get up and groaned at his melted appearance. "I need to take a bath now…"

"You've always needed a bath," Dawn said in a teasing voice, "You never took one in your life if you could get away with it."

"YOU!" Damion said in an angry tone. Dawn knew that beneath the brown ooze, Damion's cheek had turned bright red with embarrassment. Lucas was still having trouble trying to get up.

"Enough talk, let's move."

…

"Hmm, I wonder if they made it there safely," Ven said as he continued to look up at the sky through the branches of the tree he was sitting under. His Pigeot was perched on one of the branches and it too looked a bit uneasy as though it could sense something as well. There were darker clouds than before and though not yet, Ven knew that there was going to be thundering soon. The Contest was almost over but Ven wanted to be outside. It was way more relaxing out here than in there since almost everybody was inside or at home, watching the contest. At least the big screen in front of the building allowed Ashe to keep track of what was going on. Right now, a Roselia was using Petal Dance on a pink and white fluffy Flaffy.

"You're still worried about them?" Ashe asked, keeping her eyes on the screen as the buzzer sounded, indicating the end of the battle round. Fantina was now jumping up and applauding at the wonderful battle.

"Mmm, kind of," Ven said, pushing his cap back down over head to cover his eyes. "There is a thunderstorm coming our way from Veilstone. "I wonder if they'll find shelter by then."

"A storm?" Ashe said, wide eyed with fear. "Are you sure?"

"Judging by the clouds, yeah," Ven muttered, feeling sleepy now as though the stuffy air was controlling his mood.

"This is terrible!" Ashe said, getting up, "We should let someone know."

"Mmmm," Ven muttered, feeling his eyes go all droopy. Ashe was about to pull Ven up to his feet when…

"You! Right there!" Ashe turned around by the sound of the voice and immediately paled in terror. "You're coming with us!"

"Ven, run!" Ashe said, in a high pitch voice. Ven looked up and immediately, his face was filled with terror. It was those same turquoise hair guys from earlier. Apparently, Ven's Pigeot didn't send them flying far away enough.

"Pigeot!" Ven yelled and immediately, the bird landed in front of them. Ven grabbed Ashe and both of them jumped onto Pigeot's back. "Let's get out of here!"

"STOP!" The space men yelled in some sort of robotic voice but Pigeot's powerful wings were already soaring into the air.

"Oh boy," Ven muttered as he watched the people below like little ants. "That was a close-" Ven stopped in mid sentence when he heard the sound of whirling blades. Ashe and he looked up and saw to their horror a large helicopter coming toward them. There was that large yellow 'G' symbol on the side. Inside, Ven could see turquoise hair people watching the two of them. Suddenly, a large claw shot out from the helicopter and went directly at the two.

"GAH!" Ven yelled and his Pigeot screeched in pain. Part of the claw got Ven's foot and the boy could feel his ankle screaming in pain. The bird flapped its wings and struggled against the claw. The claw was slowly pulling them back in but Pigeot was doing its best to fight back.

"Give it up," a girly voice cried out (amplified by a speaker) from the helicopter, "You might as well surrender yourself over to us now."

"As if!" Ven retorted but his voice was drowned out by the sound of the helicopter. Judging by the choice of words this person used, Ven is guessing that she (at least, Ven is guessing it was a she) first of all, didn't know that there were two people on Pigeot and two, even if she did know, she didn't know who was the person she was suppose to capture.

"Ven, they're after me," Ashe whimpered at the situation. "You should just run away while you can." Ven stared at the scared little girl. She was fine and the claw didn't capture her like it did with Ven. He remember that Ashe had said that he was like her brother. And what does a brother do in order to protect his little sister?

"Sorry, Ashe." Ven whispered.

…

Venus stared at the screen from the helicopter as the bird Pokemon started to fight back. She tossed her orange hair back which was now down instead of pigtails. Seriously, how much effort does it take to take care of one kid? Of course, Venus had no idea who this person was but apparently, it was someone who could help them out with their secret project. All she knew was that she was yanked out of her room and ordered to lead a group to take care of this failed kidnapping.

Seriously, what is wrong with all of these stupid grunts?

"Come on!" Venus said, "Reel them in!" But before the helicopter could reel back, Pigeot flew high into the air, almost causing the helicopter to jerk and almost lose control. Then Pigeot dove straight down and hid in one of the trees. "PULL IN NOW!" Venus said, angry that she almost fell to the ground thanks to Pigeot's stunt. The helicopter finally started to pull and then… BAM!

Pigeot was finally pulled in along with a person. The helicopter opened a door from below and threw in its prey before closing the door with a slam.

"Let's go," Venus said, noticing that their little stunt was now causing a commotion. "Let's get out of here."

…

Ashe whimpered in pain as she looked up into the sky. She was covered with bruises and cuts from her fall into the tree though luckily nothing else. Branches stuck in her clothes, making it impossible for her to move without getting a new cut on her skin. The helicopter was getting away, thinking that they had successfully captured the person they were after.

_Stay where you are. I promise to come back for you…_

"Ven… oh, Ven…" Ashe gasped out sobs and tears fell down her cheeks.

…

"Aw man," Damion groaned as the three trainers continued to hide underneath the roof of an empty house. They could hear the raindrops as it splattered against the tin roof as they sat down on the porch. The rain had washed off most of the grime but now they were wet and cold and, in Lucas' case, hungry. "When will this rain stop?" Damion pounded his fist against the wooden floor. Lucas sighed as he dreamed off into a world of food. Dawn had just finished checking to make sure the container holding her egg had not cracked and no damage was taken. She also taken the liberty to clean all of the mud off of the glass.

"It'll be a while. First we need to figure out where we are and determine which route will get us to Veilstone," Dawn said as she looked at her Poke gear. She started to shiver despite her pink winter dress. Lucas immediately noticed this and took off of his blue jacket and handed it over to Dawn.

"Here," Lucas said despite that he was also shivering as well. Dawn gave a small smile but shook her head.

"It's okay Lucas," Dawn said, "I wouldn't want you to catch a cold as well." With that, she pushed the jacket back toward Lucas and got up. "Okay, we'll need to move in that direction to get to Veilstone." Dawn pointed to in the direction that led to a deeper part of the forest.

"You sure?" Damion asked, though he still trusted Dawn's judgment.

"Sure, I'm sure," Dawn said, getting up now. "We better go now. I think the weather is getting worse anyways." Without hesitation, she placed her egg into her bag and held the bag high above her head like a mishap umbrella and ran through the grass and down the path. Damion followed after Dawn in the same way as well.

"I'm tired of running," Lucas sighed but got up as well and charged after his friends. Well, more like attempted running.

…

_About thirty minutes later…_

The rain was slowly stopping and it seemed that they were getting nowhere near the city. Until…

"Hey look!" Lucas said, seeing bright multicolor lights ahead of them. No doubt those lights were coming from tall skyscraper buildings.

"We're almost there!" Dawn exclaimed. It was true. The path that they were running on seemed to be a little bit wider. The three trainers were really excited (Lucas was even running now), but suddenly something jumped out of the bushes.

"NEIGHHHH!" The horse with a red flaming mane and tail reared its hooves into the air and it would have stomped on Dawn, Damion, and Lucas had it not been an Empoleon who came out of the same bush.

"What the-?" Dawn gasped as the Empoleon pinned the horse down to the ground. It was then, that Dawn noticed that the fire horse Pokemon had a badly bruised leg which was already swollen purple. The horse fiercely struggled against the water Pokemon but the Empoleon was too strong for it.

"Empoleon, hold Ponyta. Ponyta, calm down!" A girl's voice cried out. Coming out of the bush as well was a fifteen year old girl with black hair that went down to her shoulders. The girl was incredibly short, about 5'2, even shorter than Dawn just by a little. The girl had black polo shirt with a white collar and with a Poke ball logo on the right side of the shirt. She had a white and black visor with a purple Poke ball logo on the right side. The visor shielded the girl's face from the rain. Her white miniskirt and black leggings have streaks of mud on them (probably from all the running) and on her back was a purple backpack that was decorated with white streaks. The girl grabbed some bandages from her backpack with her black fingerless gloves.

"Don't worry," the girl said in a soothing voice to the frightened Ponyta, "I'm here only to help." The girl stretched her arms and slowly stroke the Ponyta's neck. The wild Pokemon took a shuddering breath before slowly relaxing. Its breath is a lot calmer now. The girl's Empoleon had Ponyta down pretty well and the fire Pokemon allowed the girl managed to wrap the wounded leg expertly. "There we go," the girl sighed in relief when she managed to finally wrap the entire wound with white bandages. She looked up to Dawn, Damion, and Lucas who starred in amazement. "Sorry about that." The Empoleon got up and straightened the fire Pokemon who slowly got up, limped toward the girl and nuzzle against her shoulder as though in apology.

The girl got up and straightened her visor before extending her hand out toward the three trainers. "My name is Celest Fair. I noticed this injured Ponyta but it got scarred when I tried to approach it. I apologize for causing so much trouble." Celest petted the fire Pokemon.

"Ah, it's no trouble at all," Dawn said, staring at Empoleon with amazement. Dawn knew immediately that this was Piplup's final evolve form. Such a majestic creature…

"You could've given us a warning," Damion muttered, annoyed at the situation, but nevertheless, shrugged his shoulders as though it was no big deal. Lucas slowly approached the Ponyta and before Celest could say anything, petted the Pokemon's neck. To Celest surprise, Ponyta nuzzled against Lucas' cheek.

"Wow, you're good with wild Pokemon as well?" Celest said with amusement. Lucas blushed but didn't say anything.

"Lucas has that sort of ability, but he's too shy to admit it," Dawn said, answering Celest's questioning look, "By the way, I'm Dawn and over here is Damion."

"Hey there," Damion mumbled.

"Well, judging by the looks of you guys," Celest said, looking at the state of mud on their clothes, "I say that the journey was pretty rough."

"You have no idea," Damion said before turning to Dawn, "Come on, I want to challenge the Veilstone gym leader. _Now_."

"Oh," Celest said, "You better wait for tomorrow. I heard the gym is closed today due to flooding or something."

"What?" Damion yelled, shocked, "That's so not cool!" Ponyta reared back in panic from Damion's voice and it took all of Lucas' and Celest strength to calm it back down.

"Well," Dawn said, trying to look at the positive side of things, "It's nighttime already so why don't we just wait until tomorrow?" She turned toward Celest and asked, "How far away is Veiilstone?"

"Not too far," Celest said, pointing down the road, "You should be there in fifteen to twenty minutes."

"If we hadn't got stuck in the rain, we would've been there earlier." Damion complained.

"Don't worry about it," Celest said, "The gym leader was really busy today for some reason. She closed the gym for the entire day." Damion continued to grumble and walked down the road, obviously in a really bad mood. Celest stared at him with confusion. "What's his problem?"

"He lost against Hearthome's gym leader," Dawn said, "I'm pretty sure, he wants to hurry up and get that winning streak back."

"Ah. He is that sort of person." Celest said. "Well, you must have a pretty hard time travelling with him."

"You're going to go to Veilstone too?" Lucas asked Celest.

"Yeah, I should," the girl said as she looked up at the sky. Rain continued to fall. "The rain is not getting any better. But I need to get Ponyta to a drier place." She shook her head and splattered rain around her.  
"Lucas, go after Damion," Dawn said, "He could use some company." Lucas nodded and hurried after the grouchy blonde hair trainer.

"Lucas huh?" Celest said, obviously showing an intense curiosity.

"Something wrong?" Dawn asked, confused.

"Ah, it's nothing," Celest said, smiling, "I just find him an interesting sort of guy."

…

_Goldenrod City_

"Seriously," Daniel groaned as he walked out of the Pokemon Center in Goldenrod City. "What is Fuuta playing at?" It was a fine day with little clouds and a lot of sunlight. Hundreds of people were moving back and forth in this busy street. There were noises everywhere. Of course, Daniel couldn't appreciate the area as his mind was still on what his best friend, Fuuta, had said. Fuuta was currently in Daniel's homeland, Sinnoh, at this time getting ready for the Sinnoh's Grand Festival. The guy was strange since he had that psychic ability. Their friendship between them seemed highly unlikely due to their different personalities but it worked out fine so far.

Daniel was a guy around sixteen years old. He was a slightly taller than the average height for a guy around his age. He had large brown eyes and soft black hair that was short and stuck close to his head. He wore a blue plaid collared up long sleeve shirt with sleeves rolled up to his elbows and buttoned up. There was a plain white t-shirt underneath the plaid long sleeve shirt. He was wearing comfortable jeans and black running shoes that have turquoise lining. Despite this teenager appearance, Daniel's face seemed to be more of a young child's. He was constantly teased about his chubby cheeks and vacant stares into space. Of course, his stomach was a source of fear to everyone, especially Fuuta. That poor guy had to pay for Daniel's tab for as long as Daniel could remember.

"I don't recall having a mother's… half brother's… twice removed… or whatever he said yesterday," Daniel muttered and scratched his head as though trying to recall such a long title by his family. Nothing came to mind. "Oh well," Daniel said finally, deciding not ponder anymore from all of the thinking, "I'm sure Fuuta knows what he is talking about more than I do." He put on his usual goofy grin and checked his Pokegear.

"Hmm, the next boat back to Sinnoh is in an hour or so…" Daniel muttered as he checked the schedule again. "Maybe I should just go back to bed and sleep." He looked back at the Pokemon Center. It was so tempting but Daniel knew that if he went back to bed, he'll definitely miss the boat. Daniel wished he had a good flying Pokemon but his couldn't handle such a long journey.

"I definitely want to meet this guy," Daniel thought, remembering Fuuta saying that this person would blow Daniel's pea brain mind. Plus, he was going to see Fuuta again. Maybe they could catch up on stuff even though he had only been gone for a couple of months. And of course there was Shiki. Even at the thought of her name made Daniel blushed. The red hair girl was probably an angel from heaven and Daniel considered it a blessing that he was friends with her. She, like Fuuta, was also a Pokemon coordinator. Daniel remembered the last time they were together. They were on the beach, holding hands when Shiki…

"Excuse me." Daniel spun around and for a wild moment, thought it was Shiki (who was still on his mind) when he saw the red hair. "Are you Daniel?" Daniel blinked a moment and saw that it wasn't Shiki. The hair color was the same except the woman in front of him had hers cut short. Whoever this person was, she was taller than Daniel and definitely older though not by much. She was quite thin as though she had been living on space food her entire life. Speaking of which she had on a black and white space looking dress with white boots. However, what scared Daniel most about this woman wasn't her outfit but her red eyes – the look of a killer. Daniel blinked several times and could feel his heart pumping adrenaline.

"Did I scare you?" The woman asked, smiling sweetly like a girl trying to impress a guy, but Daniel took a step back out of fear. "By the looks of your _face_ -" This time the woman gave a sly grin as though she knew something Daniel didn't. "I'm guessing you are." Before Daniel could respond, something hit him hard on the head – real hard. Daniel felt his head spinning as he fell down into darkness.

"Sorry, but you're going to need to take a little nap."

**Author's Notes**

Team Galactic is making their move now! Be afraid!

Ven and Daniel are in so much trouble. I wonder how things will end up now.

Okay, I've been seriously ill for the past few days and I'm slowly recovering now. Therefore updates are going to be put on hold for a while. I'm sorry, but don't worry. I'm feeling a lot better than before.

Anyways, let's thank my reviewers before I go.

…

**Meta-Akira**

**UnknownGuy960**

**Ketchum Kid **(Thanks for letting me know. I've fixed the chapter already. :D)

**Light-Sakura**

**dark5523**

**DL of the Sith** (Aww, thanks for the review. :D)

**Solyeuse**

**shiny eevee4**

**Banana **(Oh they're going to see Ven soon. Real soon. Lol. Thanks for the review.)

**Furryfur** (Other evil villains? Probably not. I don't think I can handle more evil villains with what is going on right now. Lol. Thanks for the review.)

**RWT**

**alex** (Nice to meet you. I'm glad you like my stories. I hope you will continue to review.)

…

Okay, that's it from me. Thanks for reading. Have a great New Years and I will see you later. :D

-JapanDreamer


	67. The Gym Leader's Mistake

**Disclaimer: Don't own Pokemon**

Hey guys. This chapter is really long! :D Unfortunately, I won't be able to update this much anymore since school is starting again for me.

Got some important news on the bottom so check it out if you have time.

Anyways, enjoy!

**Chapter 64:**

It was a lazy afternoon when the Hearthome Contest was finished. The ceremony was about to start very soon. Fantina sighed in relief as she stretched out her white gloved hands up into the air. She recounted how beautifully the two finalists battled at the very end. It was a very close call but also breathtaking. "Vonderful! I never get tired of it." She walked down the hall and into the large waiting area. There were many people still lingering around but they were starting to get back to their seats. In fact, Fantina should get ready as well but she wanted to have a bit of fresh air before she…

"HELP! HELP!" A voice called out. Fantina looked up and saw a young ten year old girl with short brown hair running into the building as though her life depended on it. "Someone call the police!" The people around her were stunned and too surprise to say anything. Fantina, sensing danger, rushed toward the young girl.

"Excuse moi, but what seems to be ze problem?" Fantina asked. The girl was in a messy state. She looked like she had fallen down from a tree. Scratches and bruises were everywhere on her face, arms, and legs.

"Ven," Ashe blubbered, "V-ven been kidnapped by cr-crazy space people." And then Ashe started to bawl again. Fantina frowned and got up. Space people? She grabbed Ashe by the arm and gently pulled her so that she would follow. Fantina went to the nearest payphone and started to dial some numbers. It was time to call the top brass.

…

"Ow, ow, ow!" Ven groaned, massaging the back of his head as he sat down on the floor. "That's going to leave a bruise for tomorrow." He looked around the dim tight compartment he was in. It looked as though he was in one of those large baggage compartments in the bottom part of the airplanes. Only difference was that he was the only baggage. It was large enough so that if Ven stood up, his head would just barely touch the ceiling. He knew that he was still in the helicopter since the whirling blades have not stopped yet. "Why do I always act before I think?" Ven sighed as he looked around him. Well, at least the plan worked. Those people didn't even know that they got the wrong person and Ashe was in Hearthome, safe. Unfortunately, he ended up being the one who got caught and he highly doubts he'll be able to escape this time around.

"Can't believe they took all of my Pokemon," Ven grumbled, in a very bad mood. The moment Pigeot and he were slammed into this box by that giant claw, those weird turquoise guys took Pigeot along with his Poke balls. Of course, they weren't really nice about it and even pushed Ven hard enough so that he hit his head against the steel wall. "They didn't even ask." One thing for sure, if he managed to get out of here, he would still need to get his Pokemon back and that in itself would not be an easy task.

"Argh," Ven winced as he felt the left ankle that the claw had grabbed. He won't be able to put weight on that leg. No doubt the ankle was swollen and even sprained if not broken. "They're definitely going to pay for this." He sighed and thought carefully. There was no point in trying to escape in a flying vehicle when he can't even drive it. So basically, the best thing to do was to try and get his ankle healed while possible. From there… well, Ven was going to need a lot of luck.

…

"Finally, a nice bath," Dawn muttered as she wrapped the towel around her wet hair. She had wrapped herself in a soft white bathrobe over her pink nightgown. She had just had a hot steaming bath with scented candles and classical music played from the portable and waterproof radio next to her. Steam filled the bathroom completely so that she had to wipe the mirror with her hand in order to see her face. She could tell immediately from her reflection that she looked so much better than before and definitely in a better mood. Earlier, she had called her mother and left a message to let her mom know that the three of them made it safely to Veilstone and not to worry.

Thank goodness that she found such a ritzy hotel. The hotel suite bedroom was almost as large as the one in her mansion back at Twinleaf Town. And the service was wonderful. They had enough food for even Lucas to be completely full. Of course, Dawn thought and winced slightly, the bill was definitely going to be skyrocketed. But after what they had been through today, she decided to let it slide.

"Dawn! Dawn!" An angry knock came from the door. Dawn groaned. Not now…

"What?" Dawn asked, unlocking the door and wrenching it open to find herself face to face with Damion.

"You've been in the bathroom for hours," Damion complained, "At least let us have a turn."

"Damion," Dawn said, rolling her eyes, "I've had a long day and was finally in a good mood. Do not ruin it for me now." There was an uneasy silence as Damion and Dawn continued to have a glaring contest.

"Come on now," Lucas said from behind and feeling flustered from the bad tension, "Let's try and get a long for now okay?"

"Fine," Damion grumbled, "But can you at least finish up soon? Lucas hasn't even taken a bath yet." Dawn sighed and rubbed her head.

"Yeah, I'll be out in a minute," Dawn said and slammed the door shut in front of Damion's face.

"Geez, what is it with women and baths?" Damion grumbled, "It's like they take forever."

"Does it matter?" Lucas asked sleepily. He was lying on top of one of the twin beds in the room. Dawn had ordered two rooms that share one bathroom which was between them. On the other side was Dawn's room. Outside, the rain had slowed down but the dark cloudy sky made it almost impossible to see what was going on outside except for the brightly lit lights that shined from several buildings. "Aren't you going to get ready for tomorrow?"

"Of course I am," Damion said, picking up a pamphlet about the town on the nightstand. On the front was the picture of the gym leader of Veilstone – Maylene. Her pink hair was parted into two parts. On her nose was a large piece of bandage. Her candy pink eyes were filled with determination as her fist 'punched' straight toward Damion's chest.

"Wow," Lucas said, taking a look at the picture, "She is wearing pretty light clothing." He was referring to Maylene's blue and sleeveless tight top along with long white karate pants. Plus, she was also barefooted.

"Idiot," Damion said, punching lightly on top of Lucas' head. "She's wearing workout clothes. Of course she isn't wearing a lot of heavy clothing."

"So, she is a fighting type?" Lucas asked dumbly, rubbing his head.

"Yeah," Damion frowned as he turned to page 32 where the information on Veilstone's gym and the location. Then he snapped the magazine shut and threw it back on the dresser.

"Huh?" Lucas said, looking puzzled, "Aren't you going to read the information?"

"Idiot," Damioin said, hitting Lucas on the head again, "Why would I do something like that?"

"Huh?" Lucas whimpered, rubbing his head again.

"If I learn all of that gym leader's Pokemon and fighting method then it wouldn't be a fair match!" Damion said angrily. He took out his three Pokemon – Monferno, Staravia, and Buizel. All three of them had determined looks on their faces. "I lost to Fantina even though we were in the same position. None of us knew the other person's strategy to fight. I'll show you that as a trainer, I will only fight and win when my opponent is on even grounds. I trust in my Pokemon!" Lucas stared at Damion with wonder.

"Which is why people will call you a stubborn fool," Dawn said, coming out of the bathroom. Her hair was still tied up by the white towel. "But that also means you better not lose tomorrow."

"Don't worry," Damion grinned, "I'm not planning to just yet."

"Good," Dawn said smirking back and then said, "Who is going right after me by the way?" She jabbed her thumb back at the door where the bathroom was.

"Lucas is," Damion said, not letting the poor boy have a say in it, "I'm going to do some last minute training."

"Really?" Dawn said, "It is kind of late you know." But the blond hair boy didn't listen and started to give a speech to his Pokemon.

"Okay! We're going to go full out in training tonight. After this, we're definitely going to win against the gym battle tomorrow. Understand?" Monferno and Staravia gave cheerful cries while Buizel gave Damion a sour look and pointed its nose high in the air. Damion decided to let it slide with Buizel for now. "Let's go then!" Without further ado, Damion and his three Pokemon (Buizel being the slowest and most reluctant) ran out of the door.

"Well," Dawn said after a moment of silence, "I guess I'll turn in for the night." With that she opened the side door that led to her room. "Good night Lucas… Lucas?" Dawn turned around to see that the boy was already fast asleep, snoring and drooling.

…

"Phew, that's done now," Celest sighed as she made sure the Ponyta was safe under the tree near Veilstone's entrance. She can come in the morning to check up on it. The exhausted Pokemon was sleeping peacefully now and its flaming mane and tail were burning brightly compare to before. The branches from the will block the rain in case more poured down that night.

Celest had said farewell to the three trainers before she took care of the Ponyta. Now that she was absolutely done, she was going to go back into town and get some rest. "Good job Empoleon, return." Empoleon gave a happy salute before Celest put it back into its Poke ball. "Now, time to finish the other part of my work." She took out a special earpiece from her bag and placed it securely on her ear. Then she pressed the button on the side to make a phone call. Well, the only phone call she can make on this thing.

"Hey it's me," Celest said, "Yeah, the line is secure. No disturbance from the building but there seemed to be more recent activity than usual… I don't what it is but maybe its best you come over. I know, I know, I'll lie low for now." Celest paused for a moment, listening to her orders when she remembered something. "Oh yeah, you know those three trainers you met before in Floaroma Town? About that kid Lucas. Hmm? Oh nothing. I think you should take a look into his files. He seems to be an interesting kid."

…

_The next day…_

"All right!" Damion said, pound his fist into his other hand, "Let's get this show on the road!" Standing before him was the Veilstone Gym. After practicing for who knows how long, Damion came back in the morning when it was still dark. Of course, Lucas was asleep and snoring so Damion woke the poor kid up to brag about how much stronger he had gotten. Of course, this ended up with a pillow fight with Dawn who screamed at Damion for his rudeness in waking her up.

Overall, Dawn was not in a good mood and thought it was amazing how Damioin, who had less sleep than she did, was still hyper. Lucas was behind Dawn and was sleep walking while slightly drooling in the mouth. The air was still cold from last night's rain and Dawn was grateful for the clothes she was wearing right now.

Dawn looked up at the Veilstone gym in front of her. To her surprise, the building was in the style of a dojo. However, it wasn't as impressing as Dawn thought it would be. Though grand and tall, the tiles on the roof were crumbling and there seemed to be several patches of white tarp to cover large holes formed. The rice papers of the sliding doors were punctured and had holes in them. The wooden floor was the only thing that actually looked nice and polished – probably from years of wiping them down. There was a crumbling sign in the front that declared this to be – Veilstone's Gym.

"Not a really well run gym," Dawn said, stating the obvious as she walked up to inspect the place. She noticed that despite the run-down look, the place was very clean.

"Who cares about that?" Damion grinned, "I just want to hurry and get my gym badge." Unlike Damion, Dawn noticed how the place seemed to be deserted. There wasn't a single person who had come out to greet them. That was when she noticed a clean sheet of paper with an announcement written on it.

"Hello!" Damion yelled, running around the outside of the dojo, "Anybody here? HELLO?"

"I think we should come back later," Dawn said.

"What? Why?" Damion asked.

"It's not open yet," Dawn sighed, pointing to the sign on the door which read – 'Closed due to morning training. Will open at noon.'

"Mannn," Damion groaned sighing in depression. "This is the same thing that happened in Hearthome." Behind him, Lucas muttered something about pancakes.

"No need to get depressed again. We can use this time to do other stuff," Dawn said, looking around. The place was starting to wake up. More and more people were outside, getting ready for the day.

"Like what?" Damion said. His usual energize self was deflated.

"The Veilstone Department Store!" Dawn said in a very excited voice, noticing a sign about the place.

"Come again?" Damion muttered while Lucas gave off another huge yawn before nodding back to sleep.

"The department store," Dawn repeated as though Damion was mad for not knowing what that is. "It is the best places to shop. It has everything there. And my family is a good customer there so we might get some pretty good discounts."

"Pass," Damion said immediately. Lucas didn't respond. "I have no intention to go shopping with you. I think I'll just go ahead and train a bit more before coming back here."

"Damion!" Dawn said angrily, "I didn't ask you to come! I was just telling you where I wanted to go while we wait."

"And I pass," Damion said again. "Seriously, if all you care about is shopping, you're going to fail at the next contest!" There was a dreadful silence that was broken by Lucas who finally woke up with a yawn. Dawn looked as though Damion had just slapped her in the face. "Dawn," Damion said, realizing that he really crossed the line this time, "I-I'm so sorry."

"You… idiot… You don't need to put your frustration on me." And with that Dawn ran off, no doubt to run off and cry.

"Dawn," Lucas said, bewildered at what had just happened. "Dawn, wait!" Damion didn't even bother to go after them and frowned at his snapping attitude. With a sigh of frustration, he sat down on the wooden floor. He was definitely going to need to apologize to Dawn later.

…

Venus sighed as she got off the helicopter that landed on top of the Galactic helicopter pad building and walked down the stairs that led to the ground of the top part of the building. Immediately, a row of Galactic grunts lined up and gave a salute as Venus came down. She ignored them and motioned the two closest grunts.

"Open the baggage and make sure it doesn't escape." The grunts saluted and went over to the large cargo hold but just as they unlatched it, BAM! Venus almost jumped up in fright as a blurry kid jumped out and tried to make a run for it. Of course, Venus noticed first of all that the person they captured was a boy and second of all, he was limping slightly.

"Grab him!" Venus screeched and it didn't take too much effort for the grunts to subdue the kid.

"HEY!" The escapee yelled, trying to fight off everybody but ten against one was a huge odd against him. They easily got him down by the arms and had him on his knees. Panting, the kid looked up at Venus who got a better look at the kid. He had short swirling blond hair and his baseball cap was knocked off during the fight and the thing that stuck out to her was his green eyes.

"Oooo, you're kind of cute," Venus grinned as she reached out and touched the boy's chin to inspect his face.

"Excuse me?" Ven said as though the girl was insane which, judging by her bizarre outfit, that was not something he would put past him. He pushed away to get away from the girl's grasp.

"You're kind of cute," Venus said, licking her lips as though she found a new toy to play with. "If my boss wasn't so anxious for information from you, I think you and I could've been good friends."

"Was that before or after you tried to kidnap me?" Ven asked sarcastically. Venus gave a high-pitch girly laugh before wagging her finger as if to say 'Don't mess with me.'

"I suggest you start acting polite," Venus said, "Or else you're going to be wishing you had."

"Venus!" One of the grunts came up. In his hand was a walkie-talkie. "Another helicopter is coming here."

"What?" Venus said, looking confused at the strange coincidence. "Who?" The grunt said the name and Venus' eyes were widened with shock. "Well in that case, everybody move! Take the prisoner to his cell. NOW!" Ven blinked. Venus was now acting like a commander. Who was this person that would make her act like so? All the grunts immediately started to scuttle around like robotic bugs.

"HEY!" Ven yelled as he was being dragged to the door, "What is it you want from me?" But Venus turned a deaf ear as she watched the helicopter she was riding off take off again into the air. Almost as soon as it left, another helicopter came down, this one was larger. Once it finally landed, a woman came down from it. Her fiery red hair stood out against the gloomy sky.

"Commander Mars!" Venus said, sounding polite for once in her life. "How have you been?"

"Hello Venus," Mars replied and motioned the grunt (this one was rather large and muscular compare to the others) coming behind her to listen to what she had to say. Venus noticed that the grunt was carrying a really large and long sack. It looked like a human was inside. "Make sure he is confined. I don't want to search everywhere just to find him again," Mars said and the grunt nodded before running up ahead and leaving.

"So," Venus said, curious, "How was it?"

"Well," Mars said, grinning and looking like a completely evil Cheshire cat, "You could say that it is going to be a very productive day."

…

"Dawn! Dawn!" Lucas kept yelling her name as she continued to run down the path and out of Veilstone, back to the path that they went. "DAWN!" The muddy path from last night's rain made it very difficult to walk and Lucas had a hard time keeping up. Finally, Dawn stopped and gasped for air.

Lucas opened his mouth as though he wanted to ask what happened but closed it immediately, realizing that Dawn was not in the mood. She took several deep breaths to calm herself down.

"All right," Dawn said out loud to herself, almost surprising Lucas, "I'll show Damion. I'm going to win this next contest! I'm not going to let Damion think all I care about is shopping!" Dawn immediately turned to Lucas who had to take a step back from surprise. "And you're going to help me!"

"Whatttt?"

…

"One, two, one, two…" Maylene said this over and over again as she ran in beat with her Mediitite and Riolu. She looked exactly the same as in the magazine. Her pink hair was soaked that they clung to her skin. She was shivering because of the lack of warm clothes she was wearing and the ones she was wearing right now were soaked as well. It might also be good to mention that she was barefooted as well and the mud squelched beneath her toes. Behind her were her fellow students and members of the dojo. She was the only girl in the group. They were all doing their usual morning exercise around the outside of Veilstone City. Running nonstop at a constant jog at the crack of dawn was one of the rules Maylene had instill on since she had become gym leader. Even if it was raining, as long as the ground was durable enough to walk on and no serious lightning or thundering from the sky, she made everybody come out here and run. Today was no exception.

"Come on everybody!" Maylene yelled behind her, noticing that that there was a duller response than usual. "Keep acting this way and no breakfast for you!"

"ONE, TWO, ONE, TWO!"

"That's better," Maylene thought as she continued to keep up with her job. Personally, she really didn't want to be out here either. She had made it a rule that no one eats breakfast until the run is done. Right now, her stomach was growling more than usual and she was praying that this will be over soon.

"Prinplup use Bubblebeam!" A voice called out. Maylene immediately halted though she kept running in place and turned to see where the source of the voice was coming from. She noticed two trainers battling. The one who was telling Prinplup to fight was a young pale girl with a white cloth cap and white scarf battling against a Grotle who obviously belonged to the chubby and drowsy boy with a red beret and blue jacket.

Prinplup was doing pretty good despite the type disadvantage. Thanks to the rain, Prinplup managed to move easily. Grotle tried to retaliate with a Razor Leaf but Prinplup used Metal Claw to shred them into pieces.

"Grotle, use Tackle!" the boy cried and his grass type Pokemon charged straight into Prinplup's stomach. The Pokemon used its flippers and tried to push Grotle away but the Pokemon was tough and sank its feet into the muddy ground to push forward.

"Peck!" the girl said and Prinplup immediately started to stab its beak onto Grotle's head. Finally it was too much and Grotle moved back, shaking its head. "Come on Lucas!" Dawn said, "I need to get stronger!"

"Wow," one of the students said from behind Maylene, "who is that pretty girl?" Maylene turned around and gave an angry glare, making all of them shut up. Maylene couldn't help but stare at the girl but for a different reason. The girl was obviously dressed warm with her stylish red winter dress and pink boots. Compare to Maylene, the girl looked as though she was from royalty. There was a sense of pride in the girl's gray eyes as the girl continued to battle.

"All right, switch," the girl said, returning her Prinplup and sending out a Buneary this time. The bunny was holding what appeared to be a small silver bell. The bunny was shivering slightly and was standing on its tiptoe as though the thought of standing in mud was disgusting.

"Dawn, where did you get that?" the boy asked, pointing to the bell in Buneary's hand. _So her name was Dawn…_

"From Cheryl, back at Eterna forest remember? Suppose to increase the Pokemon's happiness." Dawn said. "Come on now. Buneary is my new Pokemon so I need to train it."

"Okay, then, Grotle return," Lucas said, returning his grass starter, "go Shinx!" A little blue and black baby lion cub popped out of its Poke ball. Buneary giggled at the male lion who gave a roar that sounded more like a bark. Buneary twirled around and winked mischievously at Shinx who immediately blushed in embarrassment.

"Buneary, don't embarrass the opponent like that." Dawn scolded the little Pokemon. "Okay, use Ice Beam!" Dawn called out.

"Miii!" Buneary opened its mouth wide opened and a shot out an icy blast.

"Shinx, Spark!" Lucas called out. Electricity came out of Shinx's fur and made way toward the Ice Beam attack.

BAM! The two attacks hit each other and caused quite a bit of explosion.

"WHOA!" Maylene said as she and her Riolu and Meditite managed to dodge an electric blast. Everybody else yelled in pain and barely dodged the attacks as well.

"Oh my!" Dawn gasped when she realized that there were people around. "I'm so sorry! I didn't know there were other people here."

"It is okay," Maylene gasped and forced a smile on her face. Lucas dashed over as well and bowed several times in apology.

"Yeah it really is okay," everybody said in a lovey-dovey voice. They would've said more but they immediately felt a death glare coming from Maylene.

"Wait," Lucas said slowly, "Aren't you Maylene – the gym leader here?"

"Yes," Maylene said, sounding proud this time.

"Wow," Dawn said, amazed, "You must be one of the youngest gym leaders here in Sinnoh! We actually came by to your gym earlier but you weren't there. I'm Dawn and this over here is Lucas."

_So the girl was going to challenge her…_ Maylene watched as the young girl's eyes widened with amusement.

"Nice to meet you," Lucas said, bowing politely.

"So you guys aren't from around here?" Maylene asked.

"Oh no," Dawn shook her head. Lucas shook his head as well and had a goofy smile on his face. "I didn't really know any good places to practice and Lucas here is helping me practice."

"So you came out here to train as well to battle me later?"

"Wait, what?" Dawn said, taken aback by the strange question. "I think you're mistak-."

"All right then," Maylene said, nodding her approval, "I, gym leader of Veilstone, accepts your challenge!" Meditite and Riolu nodded as well like their trainer. There was a sudden silence between both Dawn and Lucas before both of them said, "HUHHHHH?"

"I'll get over there right now, so be prepared!" With that Maylene ran off with her Meditite and Riolu. Everybody from the gym followed in her wake.

"W-what just happened?" Dawn said as she gaped at the muddy footprints left behind.

"I think," Lucas said quietly, "that you have just accepted a gym leader's challenge… Damion is not going to be happy about this."

**Author's Notes**

Does your head feel like exploding? Lol.

Well, things have taken a dangerous twist. I wonder what's going to happen at Team Galactic's Headquarter. What will happen to Dawn now?

I think I'll wrap up Veilstone's arc by the next chapter. If all goes well. The next arc will hopefully be about Team Galactic.

All right, important news. For those who don't know, I've written a new story called **Black and White Memories**. Come check it out if you have the time and give me some feedback. Also vote in my polls please if you do so.

Let's go ahead and thank my reviewers before I go.

…

**Ketchum Kid** (thanks for the review. :D)

**SagaAuraMana**

**KoreanoWaltz**

**Furryfur** (Lol. Like I said before, I update fast during the holidays. Thanks for the review.)

**Solyeuse** (Oh man, I hope your brother is okay now. Thanks so much for reviewing.)

**Light-Sakura**

**dracula-key**

**legitforreal**

**gg121** (Well, I think I answered your questions in this chapter. Of course, you probably have new ones right now. Lol. Anyways thanks for the review.)

**DL of the Sith **(How about this chapter? Long enough? Lol. Thanks for reviewing.)

**RWT**

…

That's it from me. I'll see you in the next chapter.

**-JapanDreamer**


	68. The Way Out

**Disclaimer: Don't own Pokemon**

Well, this chapter is special. We have reached the 1000 reviews mark! YAY! :D

Oh yes, I forgot to mention this a while back, but I would like to thank **Assassin** (if you're here and still reading) for posting my story on the TVTropes website (My apologies if you have mentioned to me this before in a review and I never responded till now.). Truthfully, I didn't know it was on there until someone mentioned it. O.o

I would like to thank everyone for reviewing. So as a reward, I have worked really hard to write this chapter. It is very, very long. :D Plus a whole bunch of OCs comes up. They are **dark5523** (Terra), **Assassin42** (Donovan), and from the previous chapters **Yuki reborn 10** (Celest). There will be more OCs in the next chapter.

Guess what? Ven and Daniel are in here too! :D New people are showing up and slowly everything is being linked together.

Again, important news on the bottom. Please read the **Author Notes**.

School started again for me so as you know, updates are going to be slow.

Anyways, enjoy!

**Chapter 65:**

Cynthia looked around her hometown. Despite the modern style buildings in other cities, Celestic Town is the only one that still kept the traditional style of houses. The only thing that is made to look modern was the Celestic Town Historical Research Center which holds legendary artifacts for scientists to study. In the very center of the town there is a very small valley where a shrine was held in the center along with a cave carved into the small cliff. So far it was peaceful and quiet. Nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary like her grandmother said. Still, the Sinnoh Champion had an uneasy feeling and decided that it was probably best to stay here for a couple of more days. Of course, her grandmother thought differently.

"Seriously now, you can't just abandon your job as the Champion of Sinnoh," Carolina was saying as she followed her elegant and blond hair granddaughter. Despite the huge age difference, gray hair Carolina had a sense of dignified grace that Cynthia had as well when she walked. Both had wise gray owl eyes and, at the moment, the same frown on both of their faces. "I'm pretty sure the people here can take care of no good intruders."

"Grandmother," Cynthia sighed as she pushed her hair back in frustration. "I came here out of plausible concern. I found documents on the legend that can be found here."

"Don't talk to me as though I'm a three year old," Carolina said in a slight annoyed tone, "I know that people might come here and wreck havoc because of the legend. But I don't want you to worry about us like this. We're not just scientists who lock ourselves in our labs. Besides, you should be more focus on being in Veilstone and sorting this problem out. I highly doubt whoever these thieves are will risk themselves now when everybody is on high alert."

"The chairman is already having a meeting with the president there," Cynthia said calmly, "I think it is better if I keep away from it." There was also the fear that if Galactic Enterprise was involved, they would definitely take advantage of her hometown if Cynthia went to their headquarters.

"Hmph," Cynthia's grandmother said as though she disagreed. "That man is too nice. He always tries to act like a peacemaker. Nothing will get done at the rate he goes." Cynthia didn't say anything and continued to look out as Carolina continued to list off the things that made the chairman hopeless. The Sinnoh Champion noticed a couple of kids playing in the small pond that was near one of the houses. Of course, they were waiting for her to come back so that they could all play again. No looks of fear were in these kids' eyes. It was peaceful all right, but…

"Maybe I should stay for one more day…"

"And do what?" Carolina asked rhetorically, "Sleep?"

"I could help out with your research," Cynthia said calmly.

"I know you love history and mythology but staying cope up in a building is not your style. You're more of a free spirited kind of person." Cynthia pouted. Carolina knew her granddaughter too well. "Get back to Veilstone. I know the kids love you here but you have bigger things to worry about."

As though on cue, Cynthia's Pokegear started to beep. "Yes?" Cynthia said when she picked it up.

"Oh Cynzia!" A French voice cried out and immediately started to speak rapid French in a distressing tone.

"Whoa, Fantina, I don't understand French," Cynthia said, recognizing the woman's voice.

There was huge gasp of air as Fantina tried to calm herself down before speaking again. "I've been trying to reach the chairman but he wasn't picking up."

"He's at a meeting right now, Fantina so I think his phone is off," Cynthia said. The panic in the gym leader's voice made Cynthia frowned. Gym Leaders wouldn't try to contact her unless it was an emergency. "Is there something wrong at the contest?"

"Even worse!" Fantina screamed and started to explain. Cynthia's face turned even stonier the more she listened.

"Have you contacted Maylene?" Cynthia said finally when Fantina was done.

"Yes," Fantina said, "But she didn't pick up. I zink the weather has something to do with it. I'm worried but I can't go over there now with the Contest and all the other gym leaders are buzy as well."

"Fine, I'll go," Cynthia said shortly, "Keep trying to call the director."

"Be careful," Fantina said warningly, "Zey mean trouble!" With that, the Hearthome Gym Leader hung up. Cynthia turned to her grandmother who had a grim look on her face as well. She didn't hear the entire message but Cynthia could tell that she got the gist of it.

"You better get going." Carolina said, not needing or wanting to ask questions, "And stay safe."

"I will," Cynthia said and took out her Poke ball to reveal her Garchomp. "I'll come back as soon as possible." With that the Sinnoh Champion jumped onto the purple Pokemon's back and the Garchomp rushed down the path that led out of peaceful Celestic Town.

…

Damion frowned as he continued to sit on the splintered floor. He was tempted to find Dawn and Lucas but the sense of pride was making him stay here until the gym leader showed up. Of course, after insulting her, maybe it was best to wait till Dawn cooled down a bit more. The sun was creeping higher and higher into the air, spreading warmth around. The light mist from earlier has lifted and the fuzzy outline of people who were walking down the street became clearer. However, the road still had puddles of heavy water; cars and people send sprays of water everywhere.

"Hey, what are you doing here?" Damion looked up and saw a guy, around 16, staring down with annoyed brown eyes. Damion immediately jumped up and saw that the guy was tough and muscular guy with a red blazer coat and a black scarf. On his shoulder was a purple Espeon who was staring at Damion curiously.

"What does it look like I'm doing?" Damion said and didn't look scared at all despite the obvious difference in physical appearance. "I'm here to challenge the gym leader."

"Well, she's not here right now," the guy said, not bothering to give his name. "I suggest you come back later."

"Why?" Damion said feeling annoyed that everybody was telling him to leave after he waited for so long, "So you can challenge her first when she comes? The early Starly gets the Wormadam." The guy's eyes flashed with annoyance.

"I'm not here to challenge her," the guy said as calmly as possible. "I'm just saying that waiting here is a rude thing to do."

"Well, the gym leader is supposed to be here," Damioin challenged back. "From the looks of things, it doesn't look like she is the polite one."

"Don't insult the gym leader," the guy said, this time not bothering to sound calm. However, the Espeon on his shoulder yawned with boredom and closed its eyes. "Trainers like you don't deserve to even battle her."

"Really? Says who?" Damion said, frowning.

"I do." The guy took out a Poke ball and threw it into the air. A flash of white light came out of it and revealed a Medicham. The fighting Pokemon did a yoga tree pose – lifting one of its feet to touch the other leg's ankle and putting its hands into a prayer position. "You won't even last long against me."

"Oh yeah," Damion said taking out his own Poke ball, "We'll just see about that." Before the two could do more than just stare at each other…

"Oi! Terra! What in the world are you doing?" The guy Damion was facing immediately reacted and looked around as though someone had called his name. Behind him was a tall guy with messy black hair as though he had just woken up from bed. On his shoulder was a large bulky traveling bag but it didn't seem to be straining his back at all. The new guy had a goofy smile that suggested he was, well, very eccentric. He gave a cheerful wave to the guy he called Terra and said, "It's been a while. Where is Maylene?"

"Donovan?" Terra said, looking mildly surprised, "When did you come back from your travels?" Terra's Espeon woke up from its trainer's shoulder and gave a purring sound which probably was its way to greet old friends.

"Just now. I have so much to tell you guys," the guy said, still smiling and seemed to be completely oblivious of the tension between his friend and Damion just a while back. Donovan's brown eyes were filled with child-like joy, "I wanted to surprise Maylene but judging by the deserted area, I'm guessing she went on her usual morning jog. Say, why aren't you with her?" Donovan said this in a puzzled voice.

"It's my turn to do errands and I had cleaning duty," Terra grumbled. He sounded unhappy.

"Oh I see," Donovan thoughtfully. He turned and just noticed Damion for the first time. "Who's the kid? A challenger?"

"I can hear you. My name is Damion," Damion said, sounding annoyed that he was interrupted from a Pokemon battle.

"Ah sorry, sorry," Donovan said, apologetically, "My name is Donovan and this here is Terra."

"You don't need to introduce me," Terra said grumbling but Donovan continued on as though he was use to this moody attitude.

"I'm a friend of Maylene. Are you here to challenge her?"

"Yeah," Damion said and gave a nasty look at Terra who gave the same look back. Donovan, however, seemed oblivious to this exchange.

"Well, I'm pretty sure, she'll be back soon. Why don't you come on in first?"

"He's supposed to wait outside," Terra said quietly. "That's the rule."

"Oh really?" Donovan said, rubbing the back of his head in embarrassment, "Then how come I get to go in?"

"Don't you get it?" Terra said annoyed, "You're not supposed to go in either. You break the rules as well."

"Hahaha, that's right," Donovan grinned. "Well in that case, I guess we'll all just wait outside. Isn't this great?" Donovan made it sound like they were best friends who were going to some sort of school picnic. Damion and Terra looked at each with mutual dislike. "By the way Terra," Donovan said as though he realized something, "Why in the world do you have your Medicham out?"

…

Daniel woke up on the floor with a painful headache and felt his mind feel very sluggish. What happened to him? Did he fall asleep again? He looked around and noticed that he was in a dark metal room. The only light source was coming from the steel door's bullet proof window. That was when it hit Daniel. Goldenrod City… That red hair woman… where did she take him? Why was she so interested in him? Why does she act like she knows him? The questions were making his head spin more. Daniel yawned drowsily and felt his eyes drooping again. Maybe he should just go back to sleep…

"I told you! I don't know about this legendary stuff you keep talking about!" A voice shouted out. Daniel groaned as though being disturbed from a good dream. The door slid open and a kid was thrown into the room by two turquoise hair men. Then, before the kid could even get up, the door slid shut again.

"Let me out of here!" the boy yelled, struggling to stand as though his ankle was broken. He went over to the door and started to pound on it. Bam! Bam! Bam! Daniel winced at the noise as it started to force him to wake up. Finally, it was too much and Daniel had to say something.

"Excuse me, could you bang a bit softer, some of us are trying to sleep." The boy flinched as though he just realized that there was someone else in the room and turned around so that Daniel had a better look at him. The blond hair boy's green eyes widened with even more shock as though he wasn't shock from knowing that there was someone else in the room but the fact that he...

"Lucas?" the boy said shockingly and limped over to sit next to Daniel, "What are you doing here? Did they capture you? And when in the world did you change your clothes?" Daniel indistinctively looked down but saw that he was wearing the same clothes that he wore before he was taken to this place.

"Uh, do I know you?" Daniel stammered to the boy who looked bewildered at Daniel's own bewildered expression.

"I'm Ven," the guy said, sounding a bit hurt, "Don't you remember me?" Daniel stared blankly. "At the Hearthome Pokemon Contest?" The blank look continued. "Just a day ago?"

"Um, sorry," Daniel said, "But I was at Goldenrod at the time. Wait, or was I…? Did I dream I was there? Oh man, was that phone call with Fuuta part of my imagination and I didn't move to Johto this whole time and stayed in SInnoh?"

It was Ven's turn to stare blankly at Daniel's freaked out words and suddenly realized that although the guy did look like Lucas, there were some differences. One thing for sure, the guy was definitely taller and older and his eyes were brown instead of gray. And he seemed to be easily freaked out.

"What is your name?" Ven asked curiously.

"D-daniel," the guy stammered, "Or is it? Wait a minute, did I dream that my name was Daniel and it is actually something else? Maybe my name is actually Allen or Dan or Fred! Oh no! My name is actually Fred instead of Daniel?" Daniel continued to think of different scenarios, becoming more ridiculous than the one before.

"Okay, okay, calm down," Ven said finally, not wanting Daniel to continue to torture himself, "I thought you were someone I knew. My mistake… and your name is definitely Daniel." Ven added that last part since the guy seemed still perplexed.

"Oh," Daniel said, looking blankly again, "okay then." Ven couldn't help but stare a bit. This guy definitely acted like Lucas…

"But seriously, you look exactly like my friend," Ven said, cocking his head to the side as though he was trying to see past an illusion, "Do you have a brother or something?"

"Not that I know of," Daniel said, cocking his head as well in the same direction as Ven's, "Or do I..?" Daniel looked puzzled as well.

"Well, whatever," Ven said, looking cheerful again and relaxed, "I'm sure it's just a freaky coincidence." Ven fell silent for a moment before asking, "So, what are you here for?"

"I don't know, some woman with red hair took me from Goldenrod…"

"You're from Goldenrod?" Ven said excitedly. "I'm from the Johto region too! I came here on vacation."

"Actually, I'm only there traveling around," Daniel said, yawning, "I'm from the Sinnoh region."

"Oh I see. Did you see the Goldenrod Radio Tower?" Ven said, excitedly.

"Yes," Daniel said lazily, "It was really huge. I was amazed at how popular it is in the Johto region. Everybody has their radio tuned to their station."

"Did you get to meet DJ Mary? I've always wanted her autograph. And did you see Professor Oak? He's sometimes there."

"No, but I was planning to meet with the professor later," Daniel said, "I heard he was going to be on the talk show to hand out some autographs."

"Luckyyyy. I really wished I could meet him as well," Ven sighed enviously and after a moment of silence of grinning at each other, Ven realized something. "Wait, what were we talking about again?"

"Ummm," Daniel mumbled as he too tried to remember, "I don't know." There was more silence before Ven said in an unconcerned voice, "Oh well, I'm pretty sure we can figure that out later once we get out. I doubt these people are going to hold us here and then let us go."

"Get out?" Daniel said blankly. "Do you know these people?"

"Not really. But they are definitely after something and I don't like it," Ven said, wincing as he got up. Daniel noticed Ven's ankle was swollen. Daniel got up and helped support Ven.

"Thanks," Ven muttered as he tried to shift his weight better so that he could balance himself steady. "If only my ankle wasn't broken…"

"All right, what are we going to do?" Daniel said, holding Ven with ease.

"Do you have any Pokemon with you?" Ven asked though he already knew what the answer was as Daniel searched his pockets.

"I do but… Strange, where is my bag?" Daniel said, realizing all of his possessions had disappeared.

"Figures that they would take them as well," Ven sighed, "Okay then, first things first; we're going to get our Pokemon back."

"How are we going to do that?" Daniel asked looking confused even more. Ven looked around and noticed at the ceiling that there were tiles that could be easily removed and most likely reveal a vent tunnel. The only problem was that the tiles on the ceilings was too high for one person (especially on a broken ankle) to remove. But since there were two of them…

"Got an idea on how we can get out," Ven said grimly, "But first, I'm going to make sure that those guys regret even trying to take me hostage."

…

Dawn walked slowly back to Veilstone as though she was in some sort of depressed trance. If it wasn't for Lucas, Dawn would've been bumping into everything and everyone in front o her. "I think I'm going to be sick… Maybe I should stay at the hotel."

"We can't do that," Lucas said though he looked very worried, "Maylene said that she'll be waiting for us. If we don't show up, I think that'll be rude."

"If I don't show up, Damion is going to be mad. Either way, I'm doom. I don't think trying to explain what happened will make things better." Dawn sighed, "I don't have that much experience in battle and there is no way I can train in less than an hour and expect to be an expert in it. Isn't there some magical potion that can help me?"

"Dawn…"

"I mean, I'm putting the Berlitz's name on the line."

"Dawn…"

"At least in contests, I know what I'm doing but this is another story."

"Dawn…"

"What?" Dawn said finally, in a tired voice.

"That guy is staring at us." Dawn looked over to where Lucas was pointing and saw an old man receding hairline and a shirt and pants that made his thin body looked even thiner.

"Hey there," the guy said, grinning even though he was caught for staring at the two. "I couldn't help but hear. Are you going to challenge against Maylene?"

"Yes," Dawn said, groaning. Was the old man going to invite the entire town to watch?

"Let me give you a friendly advice," the guy said grinning. "She is very talented in not only her power but also her speed."

"Great," Dawn groaned, "More reason in getting my butt kicked."

"Actually, there is a way to level the playing field," the old man said, stroking his stubby chin thoughtfully. "It's at that building over there." Dawn followed to where the man pointed and saw that it was a large neon lit building.

"The Game Corner?" Lucas said; puzzled as he read the large big sign. He noticed how the well built sign was different compared to the Veilstone's gym's sign.

"How is winning in slots going to help?" Dawn asked in an annoyed tone.

"There is a prize there that'll guarantee a better chance in winning," the old man grinned again. He went into further details and the more he explained the less skeptical and more amazed the look on Dawn's face was.

"Lucas, come on!" Dawn said marching straight to the building.

"Wha- why?" Lucas asked as he was being dragged.

"We're going to play!"

…

Maylene was sweating and puffing by the time she reached back to Veilstone. Of course, compare to her students who were trying to drag their feet off the ground, she was in much better shape. She decided to wash up and get ready for the gym battle. What she didn't expect was three people waiting for her already – two she recognized.

"Maylene!" Donovan yelled cheerfully, "Hiiii!" Terra flashed a somewhat annoyed stare at Donovan. On the other hand, the blond hair kid that Maylene didn't recognize looked alert and excited as he watched her.

"Donovan?" Maylene said blankly, coming to a halt. Her Pokemon stopped as well, looking puzzled as well. Behind her, the students collapsed to the ground in exhaustion. "What are you doing here? Did you come back from your travels already?"

"Yup," the guy said grinning as he death-hugged Maylene. Terra's eyes flashed dangerously for a moment but didn't say a single thing. Damion, on the other hand, was looking pretty impatient.

"Uh, Donovan," Maylene said, trying to squirm her way out. "I'm sweating you know that?"

"Of course, you are," Donovan said happily, not getting Maylene's hint, "You were running weren't you? You always sweat when you do that." This time Maylene smacked Donovan on the head.

"Ow!" Donovan whimpered.

"You are a sad, sad boy," Maylene said. She turned over to Terra. "Terra, did you finish the jobs?"

"Yes, Gym Leader Maylene," Terra said.

"And… who are you?" Maylene asked to Damion who was bursting with impatience.

"My name is Damion and-"

"He is here to challenge you," Donovan cutting Damion's speech. "You really need to have someone here to notify trainers when you're not around." Maylene ignored his comment and turned to Damion.

"I'm sorry but I've already accepted another's challenge. Perhaps if you come by later, maybe we can have a match."

"What?" Damion said, "I've waited here all morning! Are you telling me that I've been here for nothing?"

"Don't be rude to the gym leader," Terra said sharply.

"I have a right to a gym battle!" Damion said, "Who is this challenger? I'll take him on first and we'll see who the better fighter is!"

"Did you not hear what I said?" Terra said angrily.

"Terra, chill," Donovan said, knowing that the guy will lose control in front of rude people, before turning to Maylene, "Maylene, he has been waiting here for a while. I don't see your other challenger. Surely you could finish this battle with him before the other one show up." But Maylene merely glared at him. "O-okay. On second thought, we'll just wait inside then for this challenger."

With that Maylene stormed into the dojo gym. Terra watched her carefully until she was out of sight and then turned to Donovan. "You're really good at making her mad." With that he walked in after Maylene.

"Sorry," Donovan said, shrugging before turning to Damion. "I guess we'll just wait then."

"Are you kidding me?" Damion said his anger now on Donovan. "You expect me to wait even longer?"

"We'll figure something out," Donovan said, whining how everybody seemed to be mad at him. "You can probably ask the challenger to let you go first since you were already here waiting."

"Fine," Damion grumbled, "I'm going to make sure I show this person whose boss."

…

"What?" Venus said, shocked, "So he is not the one." She was in charge of the surveillance and was sitting in front of thousands of screens that showed hallways, rooms, and entrances. All the other grunts were analyzing and carefully studying the screens to make sure nothing was out of order. There were rows of sleek high tech computers that would make any company jealous.

"Apparently, we went after the wrong person," the grunt said robotically who had brought the news. "The person we were supposed to be after is a girl named Ashe." He handed a piece of paper and Venus took it. She saw that it was a ten years old girl with dark brown hair. Definitely didn't resemble the person she caught.

"Tch, why wasn't I notified of this when I was forced into the kidnapping operation?"

"Apparently, they thought that you would be notified when you got there," the grunt immediately responded back. "They didn't think that the hit squad would have found the target so easily."

"Unfortunately, that was not the case and instead we have dug ourselves into yet another hole." Venus vented her anger by kicking the chair in front of her and letting it clatter loudly to the floor. That explained why he hid in the tree. It was to throw off the Galactic Team on the ground and in the sky into thinking that they have succeeded. No doubt the person they were supposed to have capture had alerted the higher ups in the committee and there will be another inquiry.

"And he was such a cute guy…" Venus muttered angrily. "I suppose that it was too good to be true." She stared at one of the screens and suddenly noticed something very wrong. "Hold on! Where are the prisoners?" Venus pressed her face against the screen that she was specifically guarding as though she was trying to see more clearly. Sure enough, there was no one in the room and was completely empty. Venus spun around and hissed at the grunt that brought bad news to her. The other grunts looked wildly around at the other screens but no sign of the two escapees in any hallway. It was as though they had disappeared into thin air.

"What are you just standing there for? Alert the other grunts that we have escaped prisoners!" There was a scramble to the nearest phone and gabbling words echoed in the room along with the clicking sounds of computers. Then a large alarm sounded flashing red light in the entire room.

Venus heard her own cell phone ringing and picked it up. "Venus speaking."

"What is going on?" the male voice said in a harsh tone. It was Commander Saturn. "What is up with the alarm?"

"Prisoners have escaped," Venus said, her polite tone gone, "Or was the alarm supposed to consist of a shiny disco ball and DJ Ben's Pokemon March theme song being played?"

"What prisoners?" Saturn said, ignoring Venus' sarcastic remark.

"Yeah, earlier you told me to do a kidnapping job because you were too busy to do it." It took a while for Saturn to realize what Venus was talking about. It didn't make him any happier.

"You fool!" Saturn said, sounding more agitated than usual, "You're supposed to keep an eye on the hostage."

"Oh yeah?" Venus retaliated. She was in a bad mood, bad enough to piss off her leader. "Well you should've told me who it was I was supposed to kidnap when you force me onto the mission. Don't tell me how to do my job when you can't even figure out what it is." There was silence on the other line and then a weary tone responded.

"You said there was more than one prisoner? I thought the kidnapping was focused on one specific person."

"Mars brought in the other one. Said that he was important," Venus said calmly.

"Why?" Saturn pressed.

"Don't know," Venus said, shrugging before she realized that Saturn couldn't really see her actions. "She said she'll explain it to you later." _There,_ she thought, _It wasn't so hard to act civil now was it?_

"Where are the prisoners being held?"

"At the warehouse." Again silence as Saturn continued to think.

"All right," the commander said finally, "the boss is at an important meeting right now. It should be done in a couple of hours. Find and capture Mars' prisoner before he gets back. We'll put him in a higher level prison."

"What about the other one?" Venus asked. There was another silence before Saturn responded, but in such a chilling tone that it sent shivers down Venus' spine. It was almost as though it was Cyrus who was speaking to her.

"Kill him."

…

Celest was spying on the Veilstone warehouse. It was really large for a warehouse which made it a first sign of suspicion. Normally companies wouldn't have something like this right next to them. They would probably make items from oversea and then sell it here for a bigger profit. Two guards were standing out front at a guard post. The only road to get into the warehouse was through here and these guys were on full alert. Celest was really tempted to sneak in but orders were orders. Besides, she couldn't risk getting caught without having backup. She moved the binoculars toward the large building right by the warehouse again.

Compare to the large warehouse, the Galactic Headquarter was ten times bigger. There must be thousands of floors and the white dome-shape roof looked like it was almost touching the clouds. It was easily the tallest building in the area. There was even a yellow 'G' symbol of the company out in front. It was strange. Earlier, two helicopters flew in to the top and brought something or some things into the warehouse. What they were, Celest couldn't tell since it was too dark.

She was just about to die of boredom when something happened.

Celest noticed the two guards in front receiving some sort of order from their wristwatch and without hesitation, both of them left their post unguarded. Celest noticed that both of them were heading toward the warehouse. Strange, what sort of urgent matter made them both leave? One thing was for sure. Whatever it was, it must be pretty big – big enough for her sneak in undetected. Weighing her options, Celest decided that it was worth the risk and pushed through the bush she was hiding behind and rushed past the guard post and to the door leading to the warehouse.

Her boss will surely forgive her for this.

…

"Oh great," Ven muttered as he heard the large screeching sound echoing through the metal walls. "They found us out."

"What are we going to do?" Daniel muttered from behind. Ven and Daniel were crawling slowly but undetectably in the vents. It was pretty loud in here so it muffled most of the noises they made (well, most of the noises Daniel made). It was a pretty good plan. Have Daniel lift him up and remove the tile and then hoist himself into the vent before pulling Daniel in. The tricky thing was whether or not they would get caught while doing so but so far, it was as though luck was smiling upon them. Well, until now that is.

"Keep moving," Ven said simply. "I think it'll take them a while to figure out where exactly we are. Once we can find our Pokemon, I say the rest will be easier."

"Any ideas of where we're going?" Daniel asked. Despite the fact that he was older, Daniel seemed to be leaning on Ven's judgment. Of course, with his personality, Daniel would probably get them caught if he was the one leading.

"Sort of," Ven said lying, not wanting Daniel to panic. "We'll figure out the exit sooner or later." Every once in a while they enter somewhere new, there was a latch with holes, allowing them to peek through from above and see what kind of room they were in.

"Well what do you know?" Ven said grinning through the grated latched door. Below him was a small dark room but there was just enough light to see what he wanted to see. "Daniel, help me out with this." Daniel opened the latched door and Ven carefully lowered himself down so that his legs dangled in the air. Daniel held onto Ven's arms and carefully lowered the boy so that he wouldn't crash or injure his leg.

Then Daniel too lowered and drop to the ground. Ven immediately scrambled to one of the dark shelves that were against the walls and grabbed six Poke balls. "Yup, definitely my Poke balls," Ven said happily as he placed them onto his belt. "I'm assuming this is your bag." The boy tossed Daniel his heavy backpack and the guy slung it onto his shoulder.

"Great," Daniel said, "Let's get out of here before they-" Before Daniel could say anything, the single steel door that led to this room opened and Daniel and Ven found themselves staring at what appeared to be three robotic turquoise hair grunts.

"Prisoners captured!"

"Shoot!" Ven said, realizing that they had fallen into a trap. Daniel, actually doing some quick thinking, immediately charged straight at the unexpected grunts and knocked them down like bowling pins.

"RUN!" Daniel yelled. Immediately, the two boys scrambled out of the room and started to run down the hall. The alarm was blaring even louder now than before, making it hard for them to concentrate as to where to run to. Ven had a hard time and was limping quite a bit. The pursuers were after them, but surely they could get away. Almost immediately, Ven crashed to the ground, his leg burning with pain. Heart pounding fast, he struggled and managed to get up.

POW! Ven flinched and saw that one of the Galactic grunts was holding a handheld gun that was still smoking from the barrel. The noise echoed down the entire hall and then silence fell. Ven could feel his adrenaline pumping from fear, yet as time ticked by, he felt more and more confused. What did the grunt shoot at?

"Ven!" Daniel yelled and Ven turned to see the horrified look on the guy's face. He was staring at Ven though not at the face. Then pain spread through Ven's body like a tidal wave.

Ven gasped as he slowly looked down at his stomach and saw a dark red color spreading and staining his black t-shirt until it was heavy with liquid. Thick red droplets splattered on the white tiles. His mind immediately started to swirl into darkness.

"D-damn it." And Ven fell to the ground again.

**Author's Notes**

I was wondering whether or not I should have a death in this story. Oh well, at least now there is a possibility.

Anyways, Damion is going to have his next battle and Dawn and Lucas are trying to find a way to win. I know I said, I'll finish the Veilstone arc in this chapter but after writing so much… I think I'll wrap it up in the next. Sorry for breaking the promise.

Moving on, for those who are reading **Black and White Memories**, I just want to let you know that the first chapter has been revised so that the English names of the Pokemon appeared. I'm working on the third chapter now but since I'm still waiting for some English names, it'll still take a while.

**IMPORTANT NEWS**: Oh yes, I've decided that I might have to put one of the stories I am writing on hiatus. If you want to make sure that this story or any other stories you like isn't on the hiatus list then vote in the poll that I have posted up right now on my profile. Don't panic too much yet since I have to make rounds and post this news on all of my stories. Gives everybody a fair chance.

Let's thank my reviewers before I go. Thanks to all who made this 1000 review mark possible!

…

**hydro-serpent 58**

**dark5523**

**Trutown**

**Ketchum Kid (thanks for the review. :D)**

**Light-Sakura**

**DL of the Sith**

**Assassin42**

**Solyeuse** (Thanks for the review and the tip. I'll keep that in mind.)

**SagaAuraMana**

**gg121** (Whoa it's been more than two years already? Times sure fly by pretty quickly. I'm pretty sure that there are even more questions that are going to be thrown at me. Lol. Thanks for the review.)

**RWT**

**Pikana**

**Yuuki reborn10**

**Dreadly Rise**

**hopefull reviewer** (Ah, thanks for your OC but there is a bit of a problem with him. First is that I don't know his name. Unless you want me to make it up. Lol. Second, he's sounds a bit too powerful (at the age of 12 he's already been in Johto, Kanto, and Hoenn?) I'm merely stating this out because your OC doesn't sound really realistic. Anyways, thanks for reviewing.)

…

That's it from me. See you in the next chapter.

**-JapanDreamer**


	69. Find Me if You Can

**Disclaimer: No Pokemon was hurt or owned in the making of this story.**

Well, now, another update and a very long one I might add.

I would've updated this story earlier but for some reason fanfic wouldn't let me. Sorry for the delay.

A whole bunch of stuff is going on. And here is a new OC! Meet **RWT**'s OC – Leander. I had really fun time writing about him. :D

Also, important news on the bottom, especially about the polls.

Enjoy!

**Chapter 66:**

Leander took a deep breath and slowly counted backwards. He needed to stay calm. This was it, the moment of truth. His hand hovered over the button and after a slight hesitation, quickly pressed on it.

BING! Leander stared on bated breath at the screen. A number seven, another number seven, and the final one… a Pikachu.

"NOOOOOO! My money!" Leander yelled and jumped off the stool from frustration and shock. A couple of people turned to look and stare. The poor nineteen year old boy quickly sat back down, looking very red in the face. Once again, he lost his control on his emotion over something so ridiculously petty. Coughing, and straightening his stylish blazer, he quickly looked back at the screen. Slowly, everybody else went back to what they were doing. Still, the clothes that Leander was wearing were strange enough to bring a couple of glances from others.

He knew he should've worn more (what was the word?) hip clothes. His carefully creased clothes and lion mane hair were out of place in this Game Corner. He looked like a noble from his appearance. The carpet floor was stained with drinks, food grease, and other things that Leander would rather not think about and even tiptoed and sidestep every stain he came across. He would've actually tried to vacuum the floor but when he tried it the first time, he got quite a lot of stares. There were several artificial green potted plants everywhere as though to remind people that there is actually still other forms of life outside this building. The cheesy bright lights and flashing colors were enough to make anybodies' eyes water from pain but the people who work here probably did that on purpose to make sure no one can win.

The slot machine rules were simple – get three of the same picture in a row and win money. The kind of picture depends on how much money the person can win. Leander sighed. He read in the guidebook that this was somewhere where common people come here to have fun. So far, this seemed to be a more frustrating game. Plus, it seemed that most of the people here are older than him, at least by ten years. All these poor people around him were getting their money sapped out of them on the hopes of winning more coins…

"Come on Lucas! We're going to try our luck here!" Leander could tell that it was a young girl's voice and sighed in pity. Another poor victim who was… Leander looked up and saw who it was and immediately panicked. Oh no! He recognized the girl! The girl had glanced at him before looking at this chubby boy with her whom Leander didn't know. But Leander could see look of recognition in her eyes and she was slowly turning her head back to the direction where he was sitting.

_Got to hide! Got to hide!_ Leander thought as he looked around like a wild Pokemon ducking for cover. He then spotted something and immediately sighed with relief.

_ Perfect!_

…

"Hmm?" Dawn said as she walked past several slot machines. She stopped at a stool which was still revolving around as though someone had left in such a hurry. "I could've sworn there was someone here that I recognized."

"Really?" Lucas asked as he looked around as well though he had no idea what this person looked like.

"Must be my imagination," Dawn said. She looked around the place and felt grossed out. "Urgh, this place is awful. I can't believe they don't clean this place up. Look, popcorn all over the floor." She took out from her white bag a pink coin case that she had recently purchased along with a good amount of coins. "No matter, we need to win enough coins to get that item! I've read the instructions enough times to know exactly how we're going to win. Are you with me Lucas?" There was a deep silence and Dawn realized that Lucas was looking in the opposite direction.

"Lucas!" Dawn snapped her fingers in front of Lucas' dazed look.

"Oh sorry," Lucas said, snapping out of his dreamy state. "I just thought it was funny how they were making wax people look like plants." He gave a small laughter as though to prove that it was funny to him.

"Wax… wait, _what_?" Dawn said, wondering if she heard correctly. Lucas pointed to a potted plant. Wait, not a plotted plant. There was a guy about five years older than they were in the pot and was in some awkward position as though he was trying out to see how flexible he could look. One of his legs was awkwardly high in the air and his arms spread out like a Wingull. In his hands, he was holding two branches with leaves. Dawn could immediately tell that the outfit he was wearing was extremely stylish and expensive – a blue blazer and white creased slacks. The guy was staring back through shades but he was refusing to make a single sound. He looked like he was starting to sweat from as he continued to try and keep his position without getting caught.

"It's so life like!" Lucas said happily.

"He's not a wax dummy," Dawn hissed at Lucas, "He's just a plain old dummy."

"Really?" Lucas said, his eyes wide open with shock. "Wow, he's really good at pretending to be a tree!"

_Oh Lucas, _Dawn thought rolling her eyes and took another and more closer look at the guy. She leaned closer until both of them were almost nose to nose. The guy was sweating even more from fear. _Wait a minute, this guy looked very famili-_

"Oh my gosh!" Dawn yelled all of a sudden and pointed straight at the potted plant guy, causing the boy to jump from shock and by doing so, lost his balance and crash to the ground. The pot rolled around, making a hollow sound. Now, a whole bunch of people were staring their way. "I know you!"

"Really? You know him from here?" Lucas said, looking confused. "I thought you never been here before?"

"I don't know him from here!" Dawn explained, "My family knows him. He is Leander. Son of- Umph!" Leander immediately shot out a hand and covered Dawn's mouth before she could explain further.

"My name is Leander," the guy quickly said, "That's all." Dawn glared back at him and Leander put his index finger to his lips as though to shush her. "Dawn, I prefer you don't just shout out to the entire world who I am."

"Oh what," Dawn hissed back, "You ran away from home and you expect me to just take that calmly?" Both of them continued to have a quiet argument as Lucas continued to stare back, confusingly.

"Shhhh! I'll explain later." Leander said and turned with a strained smile at Lucas. He took a deep breath and remembered the manners he was taught."Good afternoon, allow me to introduce myself again, I am Leander - a Pokemon trainer, and I happened to met Dawn before when we were little before she moved away and I started traveling. Oh the stories I could tell you about her…"

"Watch it," Dawn growled, looking as though she was going to kill him. Leander gulped and backed away. He knew too well how much Dawn's punch can hurt.

"Oh…" Lucas said, looking puzzled still. Nevertheless, he gave off his usual big goofy smile and said, "Okay, nice to meet you Leander, my name is Lucas. Did you meet Dawn because she hired you to pose as a tree?" Leander and Dawn stared at the simple-minded Lucas before Leander turned to stare at Dawn, waiting for an explanation.

"P-pose as a tree?" Leander repeated as though this question was ludicrous.

"Don't look at me like Lucas is the stupid one," Dawn retorted back, "You were the one trying to get away by doing so."

"Point taken."

…

Maylene gritted her teeth in frustration. It has been almost over two hours and that Dawn girl still hasn't arrived. Although she was calm on the outside, inside she was in a boiling rage. If Maylene was in a bad mood, Damion was in a worse mood. He wanted to see who this so call 'amazing' trainer was that even the gym leader refused to battle with him. Everybody could feel the tension in the air as Maylene continued to sit down with her legs cross and Damion paced across the wooden floor. Terra was supposed to be working out right now with the others but like them, he was silently waiting for someone to snap. Donovan, as always, was skipping around and finally decided to sit next to Maylene. Terra's jaw twitched slightly when he saw this.

"Maylene," Donovan said, trying to lighten the mood, "What are you planning to do tomorrow? I thought we could maybe go to the beach or something. It's very nice this time of year." He had a bag of jumbo cheesy chips in his hand and was stuffing in his mouth. Unfortunately, when he talked, some of the chips started to spray out all over his green jacket and, worse of all, at Maylene's face. As a response, she punched him in the face. Donovan fell back, scattering chips all over the floor.

"Watch where you're spraying," Maylene growled. She was definitely not in a good mood, but Donovan, apparently, didn't seem to notice this.

_Man_, Damion thought as he glanced at Maylene, _she is a lot like Dawn._

"Oh sorry," Donovan grinned goofy-like. "So what about that beach trip? I'll remember to bring sunscreen. We don't want you to start peeling like last time."

_And this guy is a lot like an older version of Lucas_, Damion thought as Maylene punched Donovan in the face again.

"Maylene has more important stuff to worry about," Terra said, speaking up at once.

"Really?" Donovan said, his nose slightly bleeding. He cocked his head to the side, making the trail of blood run down his cheek. "Like what? Last time I was here, Maylene was fine with going out." Terra glanced at Maylene who gave the smallest shake from left to right as possible.

"It's none of your business. Just stuff around the gym." Terra didn't elaborate which made things suspicious.

"Okay," Donovan said, puzzled, "How long was I gone for you guys to start having secrets from me? Come on. Does it have something to do with Eterna City?" Everybody immediately turned to stare at Donovan with slight shock and (Was it Damion's imagination?) fear.

"How do you know about that?" Maylene said sharply for the first time. Donovan, still looking confused, merely shrugged.

"I'm not stupid," Donovan said, scoffing then paused for a moment when he saw the unconvinced stares at him. "Okay, I sort of am, but that doesn't mean I don't listen to the news or bits of rumors flying around here. That's sort of the reason why I ended my trip a bit early. Got kind of worried…" He looked at Maylene when he said this.

"Don't worry about it," Maylene said in a calm but somewhat tense voice. "There is nothing wrong here." She turned back to stare at the door, waiting for the supposing challenger. Donovan stared incredulously at Maylene but shrugged his shoulders and went back to eating chips. Everybody else went back to training. Terra was punching the boxing bag a little bit harder than usual.

The phone lines were down still but Maylene told herself that there couldn't be anything bad right now. "Nothing at all."

…

"VEN!" Daniel yelled as he held the poor guy before he crashed to the ground. "Hang in there!" Ven responded by coughing out blood which splattered and dripped down his chin. Ven's eyes were closed as though trying to not see the damage on his stomach and his own face was turning paler and paler. Not good, not good! That bullet didn't hit Ven's stomach directly but it somewhat graze sideways. Daniel pressed his hands against the wound to stop the flow. Immediately, his hands turned into a red sticky color. Still unable to stop the stream of blood, Daniel took off his blue plaid shirt off over his white t-shirt and tied to tightly over the wound. The blood continued to seep but at a slower rate. It'll have to do for now. The poor boy never thought that those people would actually shoot him. Why did things turned out like this?

"Hospital!" Daniel finally gasped out despite his surroundings in a voice that didn't sound like his own. He sounded daze as though he couldn't believe nor accept what was happening. "Call the hospital." Of course no one responded and the grunts looked quite happy about their success. They slowly and robotically walked toward the hostages. Still, Daniel didn't move from his spot while Ven continued to steadily get worse. This time gasping for air for the blood coming from his mouth was making it impossible. It was as though Daniel was in a trance.

"Grab that kid and dispose the one who was shot!" One of the grunts said, deciding that Daniel was no longer a threat that needed to be taken care of. That woke Daniel up from his dazed dream. Dispose? They were going to do that? Planning to throw him back in their little prison and finish off Ven… he can't let that happen. He needed to pull himself together and remember everything there was to know in order to fight back.

"Don't worry Ven, I'm going to make sure we get out of here." Daniel, after placing Ven against the wall, stood up, his back straight and glared at everybody in front of him. He took out a Poke ball and threw in out.

There was a flash of light that grew until it almost touched the ceiling. The grunts immediately stepped back in defensive position as the lightly slowly diminished, revealing a large sumo wrestler heavy fiery red and yellow Pokemon. Its arms were replaced with yellow cannon like hands they were aiming straight at the now terrified grunts.

"Don't just stand there! Fight back with your own Pokemon!" However, the grunt who said this sounded scared.

"MAGMORTAR!" Daniel said through angry tears, "USE FLAME THROWER!"

…

The machines were still making those 'bling' noises but Dawn was not in the mood to play. She was sitting on one of the chairs in the small cafeteria area. Leander was on the other side, trying hard not to look too guilty. Lucas was not listening at all and was merely slowly drinking a smoothie while closing his eyes. He seemed oblivious to his surroundings.

"So, let me get this straight. Because your parents are famous, you ran away from home due to the pressure from the media?" Dawn said as she glared with cold grey eyes at the sheepish Leander. Yup," Leander grinned. "That's about it… So if you could keep quiet about me from everyone…"

"Oh my Arcecus," Dawn said, rolling her eyes, "I've heard a lot of crazy things, but this really takes the cake."

"Cake?" Lucas said, looking up brightly for the first time. "There's cake?"

"No! No cake!" Dawn snapped and Lucas, looking dejected, went back to his smoothie. Leander, a little taken aback by Dawn's behavior, stared in wonder at Lucas. It was as though he wasn't right in the mind. Or if he was, he wasn't trying to show it.

"Really?" Leander whispered, making sure Lucas was back in his dazed mode, "Even more crazy than Lucas' idea that there are people out there who have jobs to look like trees?"

"Don't try and change the subject," Dawn snapped and rubbed her head in frustration. "Urgh, you just made things more complicated in my life! I got a gym battle and now, I'm stuck between you and your parents' relationship!"

"The last time I heard, I thought you were a coordinator, not a trainer," Leander said politely puzzled, "Why are you suddenly gym battling?"

"Don't try to change the subject again!" Dawn said. Leander frowned. It was obvious that Dawn was bothered by something else. If Leander could help her (This time, Leander was grinning on the inside)… maybe she would forget about this whole thing… plus, she'll owe him.

"Look, just tell me about this gym battle, and I promise we'll go back to my subject. At least, you'll feel better getting some stress off your back." Dawn took a deep breath and slowly explained everything – how she was training outside and Maylene 'accepted' her challenge and how she heard that this place could get her an item to win against the gym leader. Leander's eyes became wider and wider as he listened and whistled in amazement when Dawn was done.

"Well, you're in a tight situation," Leander said, "So that's why you're here."

"This is the only place I can get it is here," Dawn said, gritting her teeth in frustration. "I don't battle well so I need all the help I can get." Leander couldn't help but smile to himself. Perfect, this was his chance to save himself… err, actually save Dawn.

"Well then you came to the right person," Leander grinned, "I just so happen to be a decent trainer. I could teach you."

"Really? What's in it for you?" Dawn asked suspiciously. Leander wasn't changing the subject back to him, but Dawn (like she said before) was really desperate for all the help she'll need.

"Well…" Leander said slowly, "You could simply not tell my parents or the media about me." Before Dawn could open her mouth to retaliate, Leander continued. "Look, your friend Damion obviously would not be able to help you and will probably kill you. Lucas doesn't have the battle experience either -" Leander glanced at Lucas who was now singing dreamily of a song about sunshine and rainbows as though to prove his point – "I'm just offering my service."

Dawn took a glance around and didn't say anything. What she really need is experience, not some item to make her perform better. Leander was offering to help and it wasn't going to cost too much out of Dawn's pocket. Why shouldn't she go for it?

"Fine, you got yourself a deal. But if your parents come asking, I won't be able to lie," Dawn said.

"That's all I ask," Leander grinned, looking very relieved.

"But, I don't have a lot of time," Dawn said, "How am I going to get ready?"

"Oh I think this place is perfect for training. Maylene knows martial arts so she'll most likely attack with speed at your weak points. I suggest we start by training your eyes to see things like this. If you can see it, then you'll be able to retaliate back," Leander said, looking around the brightly neon flashing place. "We'll kill two Starly with one stone. We'll train and get that item of yours."

"Really," Dawn scoffed, "How?"

"You always have sharp eyes," Leander grinned, already formulating a plan, "Why don't we test them on a couple of slot games?"

…

Celest stood flat against the wall and was standing next to the open door though strangely enough, there was no one guarding or even using it. She doubled check to make sure that she was wearing her black ski mask. No point in trying to sneak in without it unless she wanted her face to be plastered everywhere on video. The girl took a deep breath as she listened carefully. She could hear the sound of uniform footsteps and a deep booming sound. Whatever it was, it sounded serious and that made Celest's heart beat faster. If there was any time to add some James Bond music on her missions, now would be a good.

"Okay, here we go," Celest muttered. With that, she quickly rushed into the open door and immediately crouched down before shifting to the wall. She had her hands in her pocket, ready to release her Pokemon if need be. She scanned the place and then felt really confused. No one really noticed her when she walked in. All of them were Galactic grunts with turquoise bowl cut hair and seemed to be rushing around, carrying buckets of water in a single orderly line. Okayyyyy… she knew that they were a bunch of weird people, but this really does top it off. Where they trying to make the largest swimming pool or something?

"Take cover!" Someone screamed, running from the dark hallway in the opposite direction of all of the grunts who were marching toward. Immediately, all the grunts started to run around, losing their uniformity. The water slopped out and splashed on the floor, making it slippery and causing quite a few grunts to slip and fall in very comical ways. However, Celest didn't have time to think for what was coming next.

BOOM! It was as though someone had fired a cannon inside the warehouse. If it wasn't for the wall, Celest probably would have been flown into the air. Next thing she knew, she was staring at a powerful red and yellow flames. Screams could be heard from everywhere. So that's why those grunts were gathering buckets of water. They needed to quell down the fire before things turned really bad. Judging by the looks of things, they have obviously failed. She gasped as she realized that the thing causing the flames suddenly appeared. It was a large and rather fat looking Magmortar and from its arms, it was blasting another wave of fire. There was a sudden flash of light and a small army of Zubat, Skuntank, and Croagunk. All were ready for a heated battle. No pun intended.

"Get rid of that Magmortar!" A grunt screamed, "We need to hold it off until backup arrives."

"Another Flamethrower!" Another voice cried out and the fire duck Pokemon blasted another jet of fire straight at the Pokemon who all screeched in fear as they ran away.

Celest gasped and coughed as tears swelled up in her eyes from the thick smoke. There was a large shadow hovering over her and when she was able to look up she gasped. What she saw was an unconscious blond hair boy who had a jacket wet with blood tied around his stomach. And he was… floating in the air? No wait, blinking and rubbing her watery eyes, Celest immediately saw that the wounded guy was in the arms of a shadowy figure that Celest couldn't make out due to the flames and smoke.

"Oh geez, I didn't know there were other hostages here. Are you all right? Why are you wearing a ski mask?"

"Hostage?" Celest repeated in a confused voice. Slowly things were starting to click. Wait a minute, helicopters delivering important parcels, these random people in the storehouse… Galactic were focused on kidnapping now? Celest saw that the guy lowered down to inspect Celest's face and she could see a pair of worried eyes. She blinked and finally noticed the tousled and slightly singed black hair and the… chubby cheeks…

"Lucas?" Celest exclaimed incredulously, wondering if she was hallucinating. "Is that you? What are you doing here?" Why would Team Galactic try to steal Lucas? To the girl's surprise, the guy cocked his head side.

"Wow, so many people are assuming I am this Lucas person," the guy said, looking clearly amused and curious. "But I'm pretty sure my name is Daniel... or Fred. I'm not sure…" Celest stared as the guy cocked his head to the side again. "Anyways what are you doing here? Are you a rescue party?" Uh, oh. If this guy figured out whom she really was, Celest was going to be in more trouble than a giant Hippowdon stuck in quicksand.

"Err, can I answer that question once we get out of here? Your friend doesn't look too well." Celest continued to stare at this guy who claimed to be Daniel… or Fred. Now that she was able to see the guy more clearly, she realized that he wasn't Lucas. Eyes were different, height was different… But… but there were too many similarities to be considered a coincidence! What was going on?

"Oh no!" Daniel remembered that he was supposed to be in a hurry. He looked down as though he realized who he was carrying. "We got to get Ven to a hospital!" He quickly ran out the door as fast as his legs could carry him. His Magmortar jogged behind him, sending shockwaves to the ground from each step it took. Celest had a hard time recovering from her shock before she followed after.

"Normally I would ask, but I think I'll hold that for later," Celest said, couldn't help but stare at the trail of dripping blood. This kid needed help and fast. "I'll call my boss and he can-"

"Hold it right there!" A woman's voice yelled. Celest and Daniel flinched to see that up ahead was a red hair lady with fiery ruby eyes that seemed to glow with anger.

"Where do you think you're going?" This time, the lady took out her Poke balls, revealing a Purugly, a Magnezone, and a Golbat. "Don't you dare think you can get away just because you defeated some grunts! You obviously never tried battling against a commander like me!"

"That's the woman who kidnapped me!" Daniel flinched in fear. Celest, however, was wide-eyed with shock. This was Mars, one of the commanders in charge of this Galactic team and one of the most ruthless. However, where were the others? Were they at the main headquarters? This might be a good chance to try and sneak in if they manage to create enough chaos here.

"Well, now, I see that our grunts were not entirely worthless," Commander Mars grinned at the sight of the wounded Ven. "Though who are you?" This time she addressed the question to Celest who immediately took a step back. "You're not a hostage and you certainly don't work here." Mars then widened her eyes as though she realized something. "You're a spy!" Celest indistinctly touched her face and remembered that she had covered it with a ski mask. Well, Celest had to give credit for Galactic Enterprise. Apparently, they didn't hire stupid and clueless commanders.

"You! I'll rip off that mask off your face! Purugly, use Shadow Claw!" Mars ordered and the large fat cat moved with such speed to attack. Immediately, Daniel's Magmortar moved to the front to protect the three trainers. The attack sliced through Magmortar who immediately stumbled backwards but managed to recover quickly. The fire Pokemon raised its large arms and tried to slam them against Mar's Purugly but the feline was too quick for it and retreated backward.

"You okay?" Daniel asked Celest who merely weakly nodded. She was so going to get fired from her job. "Good. Magmortar, use Smokescreen!" Immediately, Magmortar took a deep breath and exhaled a deep dark cloud of smoke. "Let's get out of here!" Daniel quickly started to run toward the side where a barb wire fence that stood between them and freedom.

"Not so fast! Golbat, use Air Cutter!" Immediately, the smokescreen that Daniel planned to use to escape with was easily sliced like a hot knife through cold butter. The attack slammed against the ground, causing large crescent moon-shape cracks and impending both of them to escape.

"Oh snap!" Daniel gasped in shock. He then saw more grunts coming from the distance. They were going to be swamped with enemies and there was no way they could keep doing this. "That could've killed me."

"Double snap!" Celest said and snapped her fingers in frustration. "Once those guys come over, it's game over for us. We need to a plan. Now."

"Don't you dare think you can escape just like that!" Mars hissed. "Magnezone, use Zap Cannon!"

"Miss," Daniel said, "Take Ven and get out of here while I hold them off!"

"Let me take care of this! And the name isn't Miss, its-" Celest paused remembering she shouldn't give out her name. "Never mind, just let me handle it!" Daniel looked puzzled at Celest who focused her attention back on the battle. Celest couldn't just stand here and let Daniel take care of anything. That guy (Ven was it?) was injured and the longer they try to hold back, the closer he was into dying. "Go Empoleon! Use Aqua Jet followed by Drill Peck!" Celest sent out her water Pokemon who immediately spun like a powerful torpedo straight at the enemies. Magnezone sent out its powerful wave of electricity and both it and Empoleon were in a tight locked battle. Electricity was crackling and flying everywhere.

"Ha!" Mars said, "That attack won't work on my Magnezone!"

"Well, it's a good thing that I'm not aiming for you!" Celest retorted back and before Mars could figure out what she meant. Empoleon changed direction and attacked straight at the ground. Masses of rocks flew everywhere, causing Magnezone to lose its control, sending electricity flying everywhere else. Mars flinched and had to move back. Her Pokemon had no choice but to protect their owner from the rocks. By the time Mars opened her eyes and the dust had settled back to the ground, the trainers were gone. It was as though they vanished into thin air. Where did they go? Where did they GO?

"Commander Mars," one of the grunts came up to her, "Back up is here!" POW! Mars punched the man's face, causing him to fall unconscious to the ground.

"C-commander," the other grunts sputtered in shocked but immediately quelled when they saw the look on the woman's face.

"Curses!" Mars screamed, her voice echoing the entire place. "CURSES!"

…

"Yes!" Dawn screamed as she once again got three '7's' on the slot machine which kept spitting out coins after coins. "I won again!"

"Congrats Dawn!" Lucas said as his small hands tried to hold all of the coins though they overflowed and spilled onto the floor, "You're really lucky!" There were so many people watching them now as Dawn won again and again and again. It was rather shocking and even the people who work here looked rather uneasy.

"Lucky?" Leander said, gaping in shock. "She won over forty games in a row! That's not luck! That's skill!"

"Well, I don't care what it is. At least I'm winning!" Dawn said in an excited voice, "Let's try again!"

"Hold on," Leander said, his eyes widened, "We have enough practice here already. We even bought the item already so let's go on to real battle to practice using it."

"Can't it wait? I'm really good at this!" Dawn said as she eagerly put in three more coins and started a new game.

"Dawn… we need to stop," Leander said, sounding worried, "Like now. You're starting to get addicted to this."

"Shh!" Dawn said, pushing Leander away and not taking her eyes off the screen. There was another "bling" sound and the machine started to spill out coins again. "YES! AGAIN!" There was another round of appreciative applause from the crowd. Leander groaned and hit his forehead with his hand.

"Okay, that's it," Leander said, "I'm sorry about this Dawn." With that the trainer grabbed Dawn by both of her arms and hoisted her out of the chair.

"NOOOO!" Dawn squealed. "One more game!" Dawn started to kick her feet everywhere but Leander held his grip tight. "Leander!" It was like watching a parent dragging a child away from a candy store filled with sweets. "NOOOOOOOO!"

Lucas dimly watched and followed from behind as Leander continued to drag Dawn out of the Game Corner. In his small arms, he was holding Dawn's Coin Case which was already full and almost spilled out onto the floor. "Guys wait up!"

Among the crowd that was slowly dispersing now that the show was over, there was a shadowy figure. He had a black cape with a black cloth to cover his mouth like some sort of ninja. He had a slight maniac look in his large blue eyes as he looked at the retreating figure of Lucas. Although you couldn't see it, the man was grinning like a Glameow.

He had completed his mission in finding the boy; now all he need was bait to trap him…

…

"Maylene! We have an emergency!" The dojo's door slammed open with such force that it broke and flew off. The man who opened the door looked shocked and rather embarrassed as everyone turned to stare.

"What? What is it?" Maylene asked, getting up to her feet, not paying a single attention to the fact that her door has been blown off. Her Riolu and Meditite got up as well, both with concern looks on their faces.

"Galactic's Warehouse is on fire!" the man announced. There was a stunned silence. Terra looked as though someone threw a brick at him. Donovan… well, Donovan looked as though he was still trying to process the words that came out the man's mouth as though it was a foreign language.

"What?" Maylene yelled and immediately ran out the door, almost knocking the messenger as well.

"Hey, wait!" Damion yelled, "What about my gym battle?" He charged after the gym leader, knocked down the messenger to the ground, and immediately disappeared in the horizon.

"That kid can run pretty fast," Terra said and turned to the others, "Come on, we should back Maylene up."

"Whoa, Galactic," Donovan said dimly as though trying to remember the name. "Dude, that name sounds familiar… Is that the new milkshake restaurant? No, that was Galaxy Beltway House not Galactic…"

"You can figure it out when we get there," Terra said, dragging the guy out of the room. "Come on now, Maylene needs our help." Dragging his clueless friend, Terra raced after Maylene and Damion toward the sound of fire trucks and the sight of black smoke rising to the slightly cloudy sky.

**Author's Notes**

Urgh, didn't want to write anymore after all that. Okay, change of plans again. We're going to have the Galactic arc first. Figured we should hurry up and get Daniel out of the way. Wonder if he is going to meet Lucas? DUN, DUN, DUN!

All right, first order of business – polls. First off, polls will officially be taken down by the end of this month (March). Which means you have one day left to VOTE from the date of this update! Be prepare if this story is in last place. It will go on hiatus if so. How long the hiatus will be I'm not sure, but probably about a year.

Second, I have made a forum. BW OC guidelines are in the forum if you want to write one. News will also be posted there as well.

Let's thank my reviewers

…

**M** (thanks for reviewing. :D)

**Furryfur** (well, cross your fingers that we won't have to endure hiatus for this story. Thanks for the review.)

**Meta-Akira**

**Light-Sakura**

**Ketchum Kid**

**Solyeuse** (Well, what should I call it if it's not a tip? XP Anyways, thanks for the review.)

**SagaAuraMana**

**DreamingZombies**

**gg121 **(LOL. Thanks for the review. XP)

…

All right that's it from me.

See you in the next chapter.

**-JapanDreamer**

Oh, and my condolences to those with friends or families in Japan. May this crisis be solved soon.


	70. YOU IDIOTTTTT!

**Disclaimer: Well now, if I did own Pokemon, I wouldn't be writing this story now would I?**

Hey guys and here is another update! Woo! Vacation has started for me so expect frequent updates for a while unless there is a sudden change of plan in my schedule.

Anyways, moving along. There is not a whole lot of action in this chapter but it is very interesting and we get to resolve some questions from the last chapter. OCs include from last time.

Enjoy!

**Chapter 67:**

"Phew, that was a relief," Daniel sighed as he looked at his surroundings. It was late afternoon and the sun was just starting to set. However, the noise hasn't died down and seemed to be amplified each second as more and more people started to come out of the shadows. "I totally forgot I could've used this method to escape."

The three trainers were in front of a large hospital and were attracting a lot of attention from other people, especially Ven who was definitely in bad if not worse conditions. Well, Celest was also getting attention as well but it was probably because she was still wearing that ski mask. Realizing this, Celest quickly took off her mask despite the fact that Daniel would now recognize her. The poor girl still couldn't process the change of scenery before her and neither could her Empoleon who was trying to figure out how in the world its opponent just disappeared. More importantly, Daniel, Celest, and Ven just appeared out of nowhere – from thin air.

When Celest managed to stop looking embarrassed, she noticed that Daniel was returning not just his Magmotar but another Pokemon as well. Celest didn't really have the chance to ask what was going on. The guy looked so calm despite the fact that seconds ago they were about to be blown into pieces. "All right then," Daniel said, sounding concern, "let's get Ven properly treated."

Before Celest could gather her thoughts, Daniel was racing through the double glass doors. Now what? Celest had no real connection with Daniel and the best thing to do was to leave. But… at the same time, Celest couldn't help but worry and wonder if both of them will be okay. It must have been a good ten minutes before she managed to get her bearing and then she too got up from the ground and quickly walked through. When she walked through the doors, the sound of rushing noise increased. Phones were ringing off the hook while nurses and doctors were rushing back and forth. There were several Chansey wearing small nurse hats that were running around. Some were carrying equipments while others were pushing hospital beds. It sounded just as noisy as it did outside.

"Hello, can I help you?" Celest turned around to see that it was a flustered and tired looking nurse in her late twenties. The nurse towered over the short Celest, making the girl feel slightly intimidated. The nurse looked like she was busy so Celest decided to get to the point.

"Um, I'm a…" Celest paused, unsure what to say for she wasn't really a friend but she wasn'a stranger either. Finally, she settled on telling a white lie for now, "a friend of Daniel's. He came here without waiting for me."

"Oh yes," the nurse bobbed her head up and down, allowing her curly brown hair flounce around. "The injured kid your friend brought in is just taken to the emergency room. The boy Daniel (well, I think it is Daniel because he said that some people are calling him Lucas now) is just explaining things to the doctor. Follow me."

"Is he okay?" Celest asked as she followed the nurse. It was a bit crowded in the building and required a lot of stopping and rushing all at the same time, making Celest's knees hurt a bit.

"Daniel?" the nurse said absently while writing some stuff on her clipboard, "Well he is fine I guess. He must have been knocked out before because there was some blood on his head…"

"No, I mean, the… the other guy," Celest said quickly, unable to remember from the top of her head what was the guy's name. The nurse jerked her head back up (a bit embarrassed) and looked slightly uneasy as to what to say.

"I'm not sure. The doctor should be able to explain," the nurse said quietly. "Though, it might be a long night operation. The poor boy lost a lot of blood. Plus, it looked like he had broken his ankle." Celest felt guilt creeping up in her stomach despite the fact that the incident was not her fault nor did she have anything to do with it. That poor kid was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. Celest knew that if he managed to live (no, don't say 'if') she will have to interrogate him along with Daniel.

Still, it was amazing that Daniel managed to solve the crisis. Celest never thought that a guy like Daniel would be able to come up with a solution so easily. Somehow he managed to get them out safely of the warehouse and here at… wait a minute, Celest frowned as though she realized a dilemma. Where exactly is this place?

"Excuse me, where are we?"

"Why you're at the hospital," the nurse said, looking thoroughly confused and was wondering if Celest was also another patient that Daniel brought in. The nurse decided it was the latter and smiled kindly.

"No, I know that, I mean which hospital?" Celest said, feeling stupid for not specifying her question. "Veilstone has quite a few hospitals."

"I beg your pardon?" the nurse said, sounding confused this time.

"Well, this is Veilstone, right? I mean, me and Daniel were in Veilstone just seconds ago…" There was an awkward silence when Celest realized that the nurse had no idea what she was talking about. Finally, the nurse spoke, sounding really sympathetic as though talking to a patient with amnesia.

"Well I don't know where you have been but we are definitely not in Veilstone," the nurse said, shaking her head, "We're in Goldenrod City. Veilstone is miles away in that direction." The nurse pointed to out as though explaining to a lost tourist. It took a long while for Celest to process what the nurse had said.

_Not Veilstone City but Goldenrod City… Not in the Sinnoh region but in the- _

"WHATTTTTT?"

…

_In Veilstone City…_

"What was that?" Dawn said, noticing immediately something was wrong when she was dragged out from the Game Corner and into the outside (aka reality) world. She could hear the sound of sirens just fading away and could smell smoke as though someone had decided to have a city wide barbecue that had just gotten out of control.

"Some sort of fire I guess," Leander said shrugging his shoulder but he too looked worried.

"Should we check it out?" Dawn asked, "I mean at least know that it's not serious or anything…" Lucas was still struggling to stuff the shiny coins into the case. He sighed as he tried to sort his bag around for room which was contained his Pokedex, his Poke balls, and random snacks that he brought while waiting for Dawn to finish her 'training'. It was then that he was rudely shoved to the ground. Lucas lost his grip on the Coin Case and the contents in his bag spilled everywhere. He barely had time to look up when he noticed that a strange shadow grabbed something from his bag and immediately ran off.

Lucas was stunned when he realized what was stolen. Of all things to steal, that guy chose the most important thing! "Hey wait!" Lucas sputtered. "Come back here!"

"Lucas, what's wrong?" Both Leander and Dawn turned around at the sound of the crash but they didn't see what exactly had happened. Already a crowd was gathering but most were still interested in the noise.

"That guy!" Lucas said, getting up. He sounded like he was actually panicking for once. "He stole my Pokedex!" Lucas immediately started to grab all of his things on the ground and started to scoop them up into his bag without realizing what he was shoving in. The boy's eyes were still searching for the thief in the midst of the crowd.

"What?" Dawn said, taken aback, "Are you sure?" Without replying, Lucas ran off, chasing the thief. "LUCAS! Wait!" Dawn looked worried. Lucas rarely left on his own and when he does, it's because he wasn't paying attention and wandered off. Dawn immediately turned to the stunned Leander. "Sorry, Leander, we'll have to cancel training. I have to go after Lucas." She immediately raced after Lucas as well.

Leander frowned. Maybe he should go after them as well. After all, this sounded something a gentleman should do. Suddenly, he saw a TV crew past him by. The female reporter looked as though she had hastily put on her clothes for she had missed a button on her red blazer jacket. She was panting slightly as she spoke to the cameraman. "Get a clear shot of the smoke. We don't want to miss anything. I can see the headlines – Galactic Headquarters… Sabotage or Something Far Worse…"

Leander immediately flinched. It's… It's… It's the media! Unlike other people, who immediately follow the media for they can't wait to be on TV. Immediately, as though by instinct, Leander ran off in the opposite direction. He saw a large fountain a couple of blocks away that was spitting out water from moss grown marble statues of different Pokemon. Leander, as though he had done this before, dove into the water with swan-like grace.

Splash! Touchdown! Leander sighed in relief despite the fact that he was soaked and wet. Now the media won't find him here. It was then he realized through his shaded glasses that there was a whole crowd of people who were staring at him. Some were whispering about whether or not this was some sort of new stunt on a T.V. show. Leander could feel the strong embarrassment rising in him as he slowly sank into the water.

_ Okay… maybe jumping into a water fountain was a bad idea… But it worked before!_

…

In the hospital Daniel was talking to the doctor. The boy still had Ven's blood all over his shirt and his pants though he didn't seem to quite notice it. The doctor did insist that Daniel washed his hands at least which was cracked with dry blood so at least Daniel's hands and arms were clean. Daniel was explaining the best he could as to what had happened to the doctor when he was barreled like a bowling pin by Celest. "DANIELLLLLL!" Daniel looked up to see a very angry girl. She looked tall and scary now that he was on the ground. Still, the fact that he was knocked down by an enraging Tauros girl didn't seem to faze Daniel. In fact he spoke quite calmly as though talking from the ground was quite normal.

"Oh hello there… errr… what do I call you if I can't call you Miss?" Celest immediately grabbed Daniel by the shirt, pulling him up to his feet, and then started to scream. The doctor looked quite horrified at what he was seeing but also seemed to be unsure as to what to do.

"That's not the important part!" Celest yelled. She wasn't mad per say but she was definitely panicking and when she panicked, it was impossible for her to calm down.

"Oh but it is important," Daniel said, looking down now since he was standing and was way taller than Celest. "You're my friend and I can't just keep calling you a stranger. I mean, you saved our lives." However, Celest wasn't listening and seemed to be in hyper panic mode now.

"Why in the world are we in Goldenrod? No, how in the world are we in Goldenrod?"

"Oh we are?" Daniel said, sounding surprised and turned to look at the doctor. "Are we in Goldenrod?" Celest turned her head around as though to confirm as well and the doctor felt like taking a step back after seeing the anger in the girl's eyes.

"Y-yes we are in… the Goldenrod Hospital…" The doctor sputtered out the words. "One of the largest and finest hospitals in Johto with over…" He then muttered about checking on other patients and hurried off.

"YOU SEE? He said Johto! Not Sinnoh but Johtoooooo!" Celest said turning her attention back to the clueless yet surprised Daniel. A crowd of people were already forming but none seemed to be too eager to try and calm down the girl. "What sort of magic did you use to get us here?"

"Well… you see…"

…

_Flashback at Galactic Warehouse_

The flames were getting stronger and stronger by the minute. The smoke was already rising to the sky, alerting the rest of the people in town. Daniel was panicking as the mysterious girl in front of him suddenly decided to battle against that red hair woman. While heroic in its own regard, the mystery girl's Empoleon was not suitable for fighting against a strong defensive kind of Pokemon like Magnezone. Well, the mystery girl could win but it would take a super long time – time they don't really have. Ven wasn't going to make it if they're going to battle like this. If only they could run away like he, Daniel, did in Pokemon battles… Wait a minute, that's it! Daniel couldn't believe that he didn't think of this before. He quickly took out a Poke ball and opened it. Out of it appeared a very sleepy baby Abra who had the same expression like Daniel when he was asleep. Daniel had caught this Pokemon before he arrived at Goldenrod City.

Although many people had said that this Pokemon was difficult to capture because of its Teleporting ability, Daniel had managed to catch this Pokemon because it decided to join in with the boy's nap and accidently been captured. Of course, once Daniel figured what had happened, he decided to train the Pokemon. But every time, Daniel tried to use it in battle, it kept teleporting him back into town. While this might drive more ambitious trainers crazy, Daniel saw this as a positive thing; for what better method to run than Abra's Teleportation move? Plus it means that Daniel doesn't have to run around whenever he encountered unpleasant situations. During all this, Celest was so busy with her battle that she didn't even noticed what was going on behind her.

"Abra, Abra!" Daniel said into the little Pokemon's ear. The Abra continued to snore in its cute little way but it twitched its ears slightly as though to signify that it was listening. Daniel continued to talk as though Abra could still hear him. "Listen, we're in a bit of a trouble. Is it okay, if you teleport all of us to the nearest hospital?" There was a deep silence and then as soon as Celest's Empoleon made a devastating hit using its Drill Peck to the ground, Daniel, his Magamotar, injured Ven, masked Celest, and her Empoleon were suddenly engulfed in a white light. While the red hair woman was trying to avoid the attack, the dust created made it perfect for Abra to help them all to escape.

…

_Back at the hospital…_

"And so, that's how I managed to get us all safely here," Daniel concluded his story happily while Celest who seemed to be now too shock to even say a word. She had long let go of Daniel's shirt. It took a couple of tries to regain her voice.

"Bu-but, Abra was supposed to take us to the closest hospital!" Celest said finally. "How in the world did it decide to go to Goldenrod?"

"Oh! Well, you see," Daniel said, as though realizing the answer to the question. "The last time I had Abra out was in Goldenrod before I got kidnapped here. I guess it still assumed we were in Goldenrod so it brought us to the closest hospital in Goldenrod." Celest was in shock again but now it was more to the fact that a boiling anger was burning inside of her. "Oh well," Daniel continued as though he didn't realize that he was standing right next to a volcano that was getting ready to explode. "As soon as Ven gets better, we'll catch the next ship to Sinnoh. Now that I think about it, I'm going to have to call Fuuta and explain what is going on…"

Celest grabbed Daniel by the shirt again and screamed, "YOU IDIOTTTTTT!"

…

"YOU IDIOTTTTTT!" Dawn yelled when she managed to grab hold of Lucas in the midst of Veilstone's crowd. "Don't run off like that without me!" She managed to catch up with him near the hotel that they were staying in. There were quite a few people outside now for the situation seemed to be a lot graver than expected.

"I'm sorry but that guy is going to get away if we don't follow him," Lucas cried. He looked like a baby. His face was all blubbery with tears. "I don't want to lose that! It's a very important device that the professor gave to us." Dawn immediately could feel everybody's eye on her. After all, what kind of lady would make a poor boy cry like that? Geez, why does Lucas always put her in an embarrassing position?

"Okay, then fine. Come on!" Dawn said, this time taking the league and dragged Lucas with her. "Let's go after that guy!" After finishing being mad at Lucas, Dawn was now directing her frustration and anger at the thief. "We're going to make sure he regrets that he ever tried to cross us."

It was getting more difficult now because there were more people on the street. Plus, the sound of the siren started to get louder and louder by the minute. Although Dawn didn't see the perpetrator earlier, Lucas managed to point him out. He was the only one wearing a really shady looking cloak and moved through the crowd such easily. It didn't occur to Dawn or Lucas that the thief was actually moving slow enough to make sure that they will follow him.

So far the plan was working; they had taken the bait – hook, line, and sinker.

…

The firefighters were already starting to put out the fire at the warehouse. But the flames were still blazing as though to resist and consume everything in its path. The smoke was making it rather unbearable. There were several who were already digging trenches to prevent the fire from spreading into the city. The police officers were trying to keep the crowd back during the whole time.

"Calm down, there is nothing to see here… Move back folks! The building is unstable! Excuse me I'm an officer!"

"And I'm the gym leader," Maylene replied back after being pushed back by the man who immediately turned red in embarrassment of his rudeness.

"Oh, Veilstone Gym Leader Maylene, I'm so sorry… I-I didn't see you there."

"What's the deal?" Mayelne asked, narrowing her eyes with suspicion at the burning warehouse. Both of her Pokemon had looks of worry on them.

"We're not sure exactly," the officer explained. "The Galactic Enterprise said something about company's faulty wiring but…"

"It doesn't seem to be the case?" Maylene asked and the guy immediately shook his head and quickly whispered into the gym leader's ear so that he wouldn't be overheard.

"We've been getting reports on activity within the building – something about a gunshot and possible Pokemon battling that resulted in this fire. However, when we got here to see, we only saw the workers trying to put out the fire. And they all claimed it to be caused by a faulty wire line." Maylene frowned in frustration. She was mad at herself mostly. It was her job to keep an eye out on the building and then she got so wrapped up in battling against Dawn that she forgot her duties.

Damion finally caught up and almost crashed into Maylene. "All right, what are we doing here? I'm tired of running around without a reason!" Maylene responded with a punch into Damion's face, knocking the poor boy down to the ground. "OW!"

"Maylene," Terra called out, finally catching up with the gym leader as well. He trampled on top of Damion. "What's going on?"

"Why do we always have to run?" Donovan sighed. He too stepped on Damion's head without realizing the boy was down there. "Couldn't we just walk normally? I'm hungry, is there anything to eat?"

"You know, those questions don't really pertain to the situation," Terra said to the tired boy. "Try to look worry for once."

"But this is boringggggg," Donovan sighed. "Why do bad things always happen where there are no restaurants around? Even good guys need something to eat."

"You are impossible," Terra groaned, wondering how in the world Donovan managed to survive by himself in the real world.

"Maylene!" Another police officer called out. He was holding a cordless phone. "Phone call for you!"

"Who is it?" Maylene said, a little bit baffled at the sudden phone call. The police officer whispered into the girl's ear. Immediately the gym leader's eyes were large and wide with shock. She quickly took the phone and spoke into it. "Yes it's me. The phone lines were down still so I didn't get your call. What's going on?"

"What's with all the whispering?" Terra grumbled. "I hate being in the shadow."

"Yeah, and more importantly, where did he get that phone?" Donovan asked, sounding surprised and looking quite interested now. "I wonder if I could order pizza from it…"

"Again, you keep asking questions that are not important!"

"Get off of me!" Damion finally yelled, finally jumping off from the ground and causing Donovan to lose his balance. Donovan crashed onto the ground just as Damion got up. "Geez, today sucks!"

"You can say that again," Terra grumbled.

"On the bright side," Donovan said, "we can still order pizza…"

"WHO CARES ABOUT PIZZA?" Damion yelled. Donovan immediately looked stung at Damion's anger.

"Hey, leave Donovan alone," Terra snapped. Damion was about to retort but then suddenly from the corner of his eye he saw something that immediately made him turn and forget why he was so frustrated. It was… Lucas? And Dawn? Damion immediately felt guilt entering him as he thought about that morning when he snapped at Dawn. Damion noticed that the two were rushing through the crowd as well but they didn't even seem to notice Damion. They seemed to be… following someone…

"Damion?" Terra said suddenly sounding confused.

"I need to go. See you," Damion muttered and immediately dove into the crowd again.

"Hey, Damion! Wait!" Terra yelled but the guy already disappeared. "Man, what's with him?" Suddenly, Terra realized that Donovan was following Damion as well. "Donovan?"

"Sorry Terra," Donovan said grinning, "But I think following Damion is going to be a lot more fun than just hanging around here." With that, the eccentric boy left as well, leaving Terra all by himself.

Oh great, now what was he suppose to do?

…

"Stop right there!" Dawn yelled. They had been running for more than ten minutes now with this ridiculous game. The thief was pretty elusive and even went through a strange hidden door at the side of a large corporate building.

"Dawn wait!" Lucas said, speaking up for the first time. "I don't think it's a good idea…" He could feel it again – the fear creeping up in his body. It was as though unspeakable memories were starting to pour out and drown him. Dawn didn't really pay attention to what Lucas said because she was more focused on keeping an eye on the thief. She grasped the door handle before the door slammed shut and charged in. She almost slipped from the shiny waxed floor and almost caused Lucas to crash to the ground as well.

They continued to run down the hallway until it opened up into a large empty white room. Finally, the strange cloaked person stopped as well. "Give us back the Pokedex!" Dawn said, panting slightly as she tried to wipe the sweat dripping down from her forehead.

"Well now, I was hoping to only have him to follow me," the person spoke. His malicious eyes were directed toward the bewildered Lucas. Lucas involuntarily took a step back. He felt scared, really scared. The person's voice sounded robotic as though spoken through a scrambler machine. He sighed and made a rush of static sound by doing so. "Oh well, not like it matters to begin with."

"What are you talking about?" Dawn demanded. She doesn't seemed to be fazed at all by the strange voice at all. But the guy merely took off the hood of his cloak to reveal his turquoise bowl cut hair. His mouth was still covered with a black cloth like some sort of ninja. It sounded like the cloth was giving off some static breathing as though the voice scrambler was attached to it.

"Y-you!" Dawn gaped, pointing at the man, "You're one of those freaky space people back in Floraroma Town!" What surpised Dawn the most was the fact that this grunt, although he sounded robotic, was acting a bit more normal compare to the ones Dawn had encountered earlier. At least this guy wasn't walking around like he had robotic arms and legs. Lucas immediately flinched when he saw the man as well. He looked even more frightened than before.

"Oho!" the man's robotic voice said, "So you know us. Well in that case, it looks like I can't play with you first like I wanted to." With the snap of his fingers, two Pokemon popped up from underneath his cloak as though by simply snapping, the Pokemon will suddenly appear from their Poke balls. A Chingling and Gible popped out but they seemed to look eviler compare to the normal wild Pokemon.

"W-wait!" Lucas sputtered in shock. "I just want to have my Pokedex back."

"Really?" the man said, feigning surprise, "Well then, you'll have to get it back the hard way."

"Chingling," Dawn muttered, taking out her pink Pokedex. Leander told her that it is important to start using it if she wanted to get better in battle strategies. "It emits high frequency sounds from its orb that is in the back of its throat. And Gible… it attacks by using its mouth which is powerful. But the is also very clumsy."

"Oh! So you have a Pokedex too," the man said, now turning his attention to Dawn. His eyes looked hungry and excited. "Interesting. Maybe you coming here as well isn't such a bad thing after all."

"We're battling," Dawn said with a grim look, taking her Poke balls out as well.

"What?" Lucas said shocked. Dawn took out her Prinplup who showed off its dagger-like flippers toward the enemy.

"Before I would say we would run away," Dawn said slowly, "But this guy is definitely not going to let us go that easily. Besides, we need to get your Pokedex back." Lucas swallowed in fear. He didn't like this at all but he too took out his Poke ball and selected the sleepy grass type Grotle out. Like he said a long time ago, he could no longer afford to be afraid to fight.

,,,

"Why won't the door open?" Damion growled in frustration. This time, he tried to pull on the door handle by planting his foot against the wall. Still the door will not budge. He had managed to catch up to Dawn and Lucas but before he could shout out to them, the two had suddenly ran through this door. So far, Damion wasn't having any luck in opening it.

"Maybe we have to ask it politely," Donovan suggested. "I bet the door is tired of being used without being appreciated. In fact, let me try." Donovan cleared his throat and knocked on the door politely. "Excuse me door," Donovan said in a sincere voice. Damion felt kind of stupid standing there though no one was around to see the crazy guy talking to a door. "Would you mind opening for us? We are in a bit of a hurry." Of course, the door didn't unlock.

"Oh please," Damion said, sounding extremely annoyed. "As if the door has feelings. We're just going to have to find another way to get in."

"I love you so much," Donovan said, still talking to the door. Damion slapped his hand to his forehead. Again, no response though if the door had feelings, it would've been flattered by Donovan's words.

"Stand back!" a voice from behind warned. Damion had just enough time to look behind him to see a giant shadow past him and slammed the door. There was quite a bit of an explosion. Donovan was knocked back from his lover – the door.

"Whoa!" Damion exclaimed when he managed to get back up. His clothes were covered in dirt but he didn't seem to mind too much. He saw that it was a Medicham whose fist has easily blasted through the solid door. Damion looked around and saw that it was the silent Terra. He didn't look really pleased at what he had done but didn't look like he regretted it too much.

"Let's go … Can't take my eyes off of you guys unless I want to deal with more trouble than usual," Terra said as though to explain his actions. The trainer then turned his attention to Damion. "You can explain to me what's going on later." Damion stared at the guy and gave a sort of stiff mutual respect kind of nod.

"All right then, let's go." Damion immediately charged in without a single glance from behind.

"Wait, isn't this kind of… I dunno, an obstruction to personal property or something. I mean, won't we get sued," Donovan said, sounding smart for once with his big words. But Terra immediately pushed him into the building which was completely white. "Maybe if we apologize to them, they'll understand?"

"As if," Terra scoffed. Donovan shrugged as though to say 'You never know' and then looked at Terra suspiciously.

"Anything you want to tell me?" Donovan said. Terra knew that Donovan was talking about whether or not Terra was willing to share information that Maylene and everybody else at the gym knew. "Terra, I know that this building has something to do with Maylene's wariness and I'm not going to just run away. Something about these people here is what is causing a major disturbance among everybody right? Can't you tell me?"

"Donovan," Terra said, glancing at the hallway, "Just… just be careful… I don't know how Damion managed to stumble across this place but this a too good of an opportunity to miss." Terra stood still for a moment and then immediately turned his head up to the roof. There in the corner, he could see a tiny surveillance camera zoomed in on him and bewildered Donovan, who just realized that they were being watched the entire time. The lens reflected Terra's calm and serious demeanor.

"Try and stop us if you can," Terra whispered quietly to it and the video feed from this camera immediately blacked out. As though a shadow came out of nowhere and destroyed everything it had just recorded.

…

Commander Mars had just barely made it back to HQ before the civilians started to crowd around their warehouse. Those stupid kids! She was going to use all of her resources to find out where they went and make sure that they pay dearly. She immediately changed her clothes to a cleaner set earlier but she was still fuming with anger. Then she sat in her office chair and immediately pound against the keyboard, causing the large screen on the wall to stutter and spurt from such force.

"Commander Mars!"

"What?" The lady snapped. The grunt immediately jumped back but continued with his report.

"The spy came back and reported that he had found the kid that you were searching for. He's holding them off in the chamber you asked us to prepare." Immediately, Mars' bad mood evaporated. Perfect! Who knew that the little kid would suddenly appear just for her?

"Hmm, it's a pity that I lost that Daniel kid, but no matters. I'll make sure I get the reunion right this time."

"Also," the grunt reported. "There seems to be a girl with him. Here is a picture." Mars took the photo and looked at it. Immediately, her eyes grew wide with amazement and pure happiness. The gods must be smiling upon her today. Mars handed the picture back to the grunt.

"Report to Saturn that I have his precious hostage ready. And give this picture to him while at it." With that Mars got up and walked out of the room. She was filled in anticipation and pleasure. Most importantly, she was filled with the desire for revenge.

**Author's Notes**

And this does not look good for our heroes. O.o

Now I know that I keep saying that I'll get to the next part of the story and I'm sorry for delaying it repeatedly. Hopefully, I'll finish this arc in at least two chapters and no more.

Oh well, in other news, a new Pokemon game is coming out. Man, it just seemed like yesterday that they had just finished Black and White. I wonder if this will be on the 3DS console though. I dunno; I haven't really been reading any of the news recently.

Let's thank my reviewers before I go. :D

…

**RWT**

**Light-Sakura**

**Dreadly Rise**

**Ketchum Kid**

**Assassin42**

**Solyeuse** (So the word is actually 'tip off'? Hmm, okay then. Thanks for the review.)

**N the puppet**

**SagaAuraMana**

…

That's it from me. I'll see you in the next chapter.

**-JapanDreamer**


	71. Six Divided by Three is Equal to Two

**Disclaimer: Can't own Pokemon, even on my special day.**

Dawn: Hi everybody! Err, JD is unavailable right now, so the characters in her story will be taking over. First off, JD had been very busy with a test. But she is now back in business and should be updating faster. Important information in the author notes so please read. Anyways, are you guys ready?

Lucas: For what?

Damion: What? Lucas, how long have you had your head stuck in that donut box?

Dawn: SHHH! JD will hear you.

Damion: Yeah right! We got her tied up in the closet.

Jimmy: Yeah, it's time for our revolt!

Crystal: We're not revolting Jimmy!

Lucas (looks at newcomers): Wait, who are you guys?

Crystal: I'm Crystal. From JD's other story. Since she couldn't update all the stories at the same time today, Dawn invited me here.

Dawn: Hey Crystal, nice to meet you finally.

Jimmy: Its way too crowded in here!

Brendan: Well sorry for wanting to join the party.

May: Yeah, we haven't showed up since Rewritten. What is JD thinking? Writing only one story about me and Brendan?

Brendan: Don't say it like that. There was that one shot.

May: That doesn't count! Everybody else still got more screen time that we do.

Jimmy: Face it, you're not popular.

May punches Jimmy in the face.

Bianca: Helloooo? Can we come in?

Damion: Wait, 'we'? How many of you guys?

Cheren: Three of us – me, Bianca, and Alex. We're from JD's BW story. Dawn invited us.

Alex: Hey guys.

Crystal: Could White come?

Bianca: Nope. JD hasn't decided whether or not to put her in the story.

Dawn: Shame, it would be nice to have more people here. I wish we could've invited Daniel but that would totally ruin the story.

Lucas: What are you talking about? Who is Daniel?

Damion (looks angrily at Dawn): We don't have enough space here! Stop trying to invite more people!

Dawn: Oh shut up! It's been a while since we've done something like this.

Alex: Uhhh, I have amnesia. Why are we here again?

Crystal: JD still hasn't given you your memories back?

Alex: No, she's being lazy and not updating. I heard she got a lot of angry readers now.

Crystal: Figures. That would explain her hiding all the time.

Dawn: Okay everyone, get ready!

Brendan: Dawn, Jimmy is still be pummeled by May.

Dawn: Oh leave him be. Places everybody!

Cheren: Why did I agree to this?

Bianca: Come on! This might encourage everybody to review more. Plus, free advertisement! Shout out to that cute guy with the brown hair and glasses looking at the screen.

Alex: Why are we here again?

Dawn: Okay, let's give a shout out to JD. Make it loud. One, two THREE!

Everyone: HAPPY BIRTHDAY JD!

**Chapter 68:**

The chairman of the Pokemon Committee was wiping his glasses after taking a long nap in his dark office. It was an extremely long day that ended with him sipping on coffee. The meetings from earlier went terrible. First, the poor man had to first try to calm the media down and made sure none of them had learned of the horrible things that have been found, particularly the Lucario kid. He specifically ordered that no one would bother him for a couple of hours while he managed to catch up on his sleep.

The chairman's phone had been ringing off the hook nonstop that he had to unhook the cord. The chairman then had to focus on having the other in the Pokemon Committee to sort out the best method to tackle this problem. After that, the short man tried set up a meeting with the president of the Galatical Enterprise, but the man was as elusive as ever. Even with the rumors of the warehouse, the company had not come out to make a statement which made things more highly suspicious. Of course, the president did promise to make a statement but he seemed to be putting it off for some reason and the usually tolerant chairman was running out of patience.

After a whole day of running around in his building, the chairman finally managed to take a long nap and now that he woke up, he was surprised to see his office to be so dark. Quickly, the chairman check his phone. Immediately, more than seventy messages were found (no surprises there). As he scrolled down the list of numbers, the chairman (to his great surprise) saw a repeating number many times – a number that didn't belong to news stations or reporters. He quickly dialed the number and listened to the ringing tone.

"Hello?" the chairman said apprehensively into the receiver when the sound stopped.

"MIZER CHAIRMAN!" The voice literally screamed into the poor man's eardrum as though the person was just standing right next to him. He had to hold it several feet away just so his ears would stop ringing from the French lady's voice. "I 'ave been calling you all day! Why did you 'ave your phone off?"

"I was err… asleep," the chairman said sounding flustered. He wiped his baldish head. He should've expected the gym leader to scream after missing so many of her calls, but the poor man's heart still wasn't able to handle it. He didn't like it when Fantina started to scream like this. It made it even harder for him to understand the thick accent and then Fantina gets even more irritated.

"Never mind!" Fantina said, as though it was the chairman's fault for bringing so much trouble. "We 'ave an emergency! Turn on the T.V." Bewildered, the chairman quickly got the remote in the room and turned on a small television which was in the middle of breaking news.

"What?" the chairman gasped as he saw the burning flames coming out of the warehouse on the screen. He immediately turned down the volume and said, "Fantina, what is going on?" Immediately, the French lady plunged into a long and heavily accented story. It was hard for the chairman to understand but he definitely got the gist of it.

"What? Kidnapping? Cynthia went to investigate? Are you sure?"

"Would I 'ave called you if I wasn't?"

_Yes,_ the chairman thought but decided not to say that out loud. Instead, he went back onto the subject. "Fantina, does Maylene know?"

"I zink so. Cynzia should 'ave gotten hold of her."

"Where are you now?"

"Back at my gym. I can't leave it without telling you remember?" The chairman did remember. The last time Fantina had left without telling anyone, she went on a shopping spree in Veilstone and resulted in a large amount of complaints from challengers.

"Right, I will contact the police to get a hold of the situation. Get over there if you can… And call Crasher Wake while you're at it," the chairman added.

"Okay Mizter chairman," Fantina said and immediately hung up. Quickly, before the chairman dialed to the Veilstone police station, he quickly punched in another number. The phone rang a while before it finally picked up.

"Hello Gardenia? Yes, that boy that I asked you take care of… yes, Tory, that guy. Can you bring him to me?... Wait… WHAT? He left after hearing the news! Why didn't you tell me?... Oh great," the chairman slapped his forehead in frustration. He didn't blame Gardenia but things were getting complicated now. "Okay, no matter. Stay where you are unless I say otherwise okay?" With that the chairman quickly called the Veilstone police now. He definitely needed to be brought up to speed with everything that was going on. And more importantly, he would definitely make a call to Galactic Enterprise's president. That man, as much as he tried, cannot hide this time.

…

Veilstone City…

"Cynthia!" Maylene called out, waving her hand energetically toward the woman. Their looks contrasted greatly. One had short messy pink hair and scruffy clothes while the other had long flowing blond hair and elegant fur like coat.

"Maylene! What's the situation over there?" Cynthia asked immediately when she came down from her Garchomp. The Champion ignored the stares she was getting from the crowd. The sirens were still ringing in her ears.

"Not good," Maylene said, "The policemen are still having trouble getting in contact with the Galactic Enterprise people. Good thing is that the fire is almost put out." It was true, there seemed to be less smoke now and not as much flames pouring out of the building. In fact, some of the firemen were gathering the hoses back.

"So was this fire accidental or intentional," Cynthia asked. Maylene merely shrugged her shoulders.

"Okay, fine, I'll try and get a representative from this company to come out. Meanwhile, I need you to help the policemen to get everybody out of here. We don't need people to start rumors and the chairman already has enough on his plate." Maylene didn't like the idea of doing grunt work but the job was important and Cynthia couldn't really do it since she was a 'foreigner' and rather famous Champion in the Sinnoh region. Maylene on the other hand…

"Everybody let's move out!" Maylene called out. "Nothing to see here! Excuse me I'm the gym leader! Listen to me! No, Cynthia is not signing autographs right now. Move! Terra, Donovan! Help me!" It was at that precise moment that Maylene noticed that her two friends had mysteriously vanished. All of her other students were already getting the crowd to move. This puzzled Maylene greatly. Where were those guys? She quickly turned to her Riolu who was having a hard time with the crowd due to its short stature.

"Riolu, scan the auras in the crowd for me and see if Donovan or Terra is here." Riolu nodded and closed its eyes. It was immediately surrounded by a blue light and its black floppy ears flew up as though defying gravity. After a good ten seconds, the light disappeared and Riolu opened its eyes. It turned to its trainer and shook its head as though to say, "No, they are not here."

"Okayyyy," Maylene frowned. It wasn't like them to run off. All right, Donovan did like to go off in the different direction sometimes but Terra never would just leave without telling her first. "Expand the search," Maylene said to Riolu. The Pokemon repeated the procedure and after a good forty seconds it opened its eyes, looking shock. "Did you find them?" Maylene asked. Riolu nodded but instead of responding quickly ran through the crowd. "Hey wait!"

"Maylene!" One of the students called out, "Where are you going?"

"Ummm, bathroom!" Maylene fibbed and quickly left before her student could say anything. Meditite followed after Maylene though the Pokemon seemed to be struggling with the crowd. Meanwhile, Maylene kept her eyes on her Riolu which kept easily dashing and weaving around the crowds' legs despite its small size. It took all of her concentration to keep an eye on her Pokemon.

Strange… where did Donovan and Terra go?

…

The battle was barely starting but Dawn and Lucas weren't doing very well. Prinplup and Grotle were having trouble working together. Meanwhile the masked ninja space man easily had the advantage of the battle. His Chingling was emitting a high frequency pitch noise that bounced around the walls, making a painfully distracting echo.

"Chingling," the robotic voice cried out, "use Uproar again! Gible, use Dragon Rush!" The little bell Pokemon emitted the high pitch sound, causing Dawn's Prinplup and Lucas' Grotle confused and in pain. Then immediately, Gible simply charged in and smashed against the two Pokemon. Apparently, the cloaked man's Gible had already used to the noise for it didn't even flinch.

"Argh I can't concentrate!" Dawn complained as she tried to focus. Lucas was already succumbed to the sound and seemed to be really dizzy for he was having a hard time standing upright.

"Give it up," the man said.

"As if," Dawn scoffed. "Like I'm going to let the noise bother me to this degree!"

"Grotle, use Razor Leaf!" Lucas called out. The slow turtle Pokemon created a small tornado of leaves and shot them straight at Chingling. However, the little Pokemon's Uproar just blasted the leaves back, allowing Gible another chance to attack.

"No good," Dawn said, "Far range attacks aren't going to work on it. And we can't get close either thanks to Gible."

"What are we going to do then?" Lucas said.

"I don't know," Dawn said, sounding frustrated as she looked at her Pokedex. "It says here that Chingling is a Psychic Pokemon and Gible is a Dragon type. We don't have Damion's Buizel to deal with Gible quickly…" Dawn gave Lucas the Pokedex and the guy scrolled down to check the information. He was looking at it rather calmly despite the situation.

"What are you doing?" Dawn asked after Lucas had been on her Pokedex longer than she anticipated. She was doing some damage to Gible but each time Chingling would wail its Uproar attack, causing Prinplup to fall back.

"Oh I'm just checking other information on other Pokemon."

"What? Lucas we don't have time for that! Do you understand the situation we're in?"

"Oh okay then," Lucas piped up finally, handing back the Pokedex to Dawn who was baffled by Lucas' sudden change of interest, "Then we'll just use that move."

"What move?"

"Let's go Drifloon!" Lucas called out.

"Floon!" the purple balloon Pokemon said as it came out of its Poke ball. It floated to the ceiling, watching everything below.

"Drifloon?" Dawn said, wondering what Lucas was thinking.

"Hmph," the masked grunt said, "Your Drifloon doesn't even look capable in fighting." The balloon Pokemon heard this and puffed out in anger. It didn't like the fact that it was being insulted so quickly.

"Use Astonish!" Lucas said and immediately and the ghost Pokemon charged forward. Chingling was still using Uproar but it didn't seem to affect Drifloon as it slammed against the Pokemon with such force that the small Pokemon flew back a couple of feet and fainted.

"What?" The masked grunt roared in shock.

"What?" Dawn gasped and turned to Lucas in surprise. The chubby guy simply shrugged his shoulders as though his feat was no big deal.

"Oh, Uproar was a normal attack so I had Drifloon out since it was a ghost type and thus wouldn't be affected by the attack," Lucas said calmly, "And because Uproar lasts for a while, Drifloon was free to attack Chingling without the fear of getting hit with another type of attack. And the Astonish attack is ghost type which is effective against psychic Pokemon like Chingling… right?" There was a moment of silence as Dawn tried to get her bearings.

"You got all this from the Pokedex?" Dawn said in slight awe.

"Sort of," Lucas replied. "Now it'll be easier to attack right?"

"Right," Dawn said, turning to the lone Gible who seemed to slowly realize that it was in trouble. "Prinplup! Use Metal Claw!" The penguin Pokemon slashed its flippers against Gible who immediately stumbled back.

"Grotle, use Razor Leaf again!" The turtle Pokemon sent out another fury of leaves at the Gible. The dragon Pokemon looked tired now as it was slowly feeling the effects of this double teaming.

"Bah!" The masked grunt retaliated, sounding angry for the first time. "Looks like play time is over!" This time he took out another Poke ball, revealing a rather large and menacing Staraptor. It landed on the cloaked grunt's shoulder. "Staraptor, attack that Drifloon!"

"Drifloon!" Lucas cried out.

"You don't have time to worry!" the masked grunt said. "Gible use Dragon Rage again!"

"Staravia, retaliate against that big bird!" The large Staraptor was immediately intercepted from its target and then was slammed away while Drifloon panicked, looking around.

"Geez, I can't believe how much trouble you guys brought." Damion said as he walked into the room. Behind him came two guys that Dawn and Lucas didn't recognize.

"Damion!" Dawn gasped, "What are you doing here?"

"Well saving your butts for one thing. And where is my thank you?"

"Thank you Damion," Lucas said, bowing slightly. Damion stared at Lucas before punching the guy on the head.

"Ow!" Lucas whimpered.

"I was just joking," Damion said, rolling his eyes. "Anyways, what's going on?"

"My Pokedex was stolen," Lucas said, still rubbing his head. His eyes were watering.

"Who are you two?" Dawn asked to the two guys behind Damion. One of them was a tall and had messy black hair. He had this ridiculous grin on his face that the first thing Dawn thought of was Lucas. The other guy was, well, scowling, but not at Dawn. The muscular guy was glaring through brown eyes at the masked grunt.

"Hi, I'm Donovan! And this is Terra, we-."

"No time for chitchat," Terra snapped and took out his Poke ball to reveal his Medicham. "This guy means business."

"Oh yes," Donovan said. Immediately, the guy's face turned into a serious look. "Looks like I got to get serious." Immediately everybody turned to face the masked grunt. Five against one seemed like a pretty good advantage.

"Wow, so there were more people than I expected," the robotic voice said as he exhaled a rush of static sound. He suddenly looked away as though distracted by a fly. Terra noticed that the masked man's eyes narrowed before looking back at the trainers. "Very well, it looks like my superiors are here. Looks like we'll have to finish our battle some other time." With a snap of his fingers, the masked man was lifted into the air by his Staraptor. He was about to leave through a door at the side of the high white wall.

"You're not getting away!" Terra yelled. "Medicam, High Jump Kick!" The fighting Pokemon tried to jump but was immediately stopped as though there was some sort of force field and was slammed down.

"Medicham!" Terra rushed to his Pokemon.

"Interesting, must be some sort of bullet proof mirror or something. Probably glass used for rockets going to space," Donovan said, looking up with quite calamity. "Anyways, that guy said his 'superiors' were coming right? If that's the case, then we better keep moving. I don't want to be caught up with them yet."

"Hold it right there!" Another voice yelled, this time female. Dawn looked around puzzled, wondering why the voice sounded familiar. Donovan and Terra immediately flinched as though the voice was too familiar for them. Standing behind them was a young pink hair girl. Dawn immediately cringed. She should've realized who it was.

"Donovan and Terra," Maylene said slowly as though trying to torture the names first before the people. "What are you doing here?" In front of her were her Riolu and Meditite. Both looked displeased as well.

"We were just… following a lead," Donovan muttered. Terra stared mutely at the ground as though not wanting to make excuses and simply accept the punishment given.

"No matter," Maylene said. She turned to the others and when her eyes laid on her, Dawn immediately flinched. "You! What are you doing here?" Maylene's eyes were filled in recognition.

"Wait," Damion said, "You two know each other?"

"I know her too," Lucas piped up.

"Me too!" Donovan said and grinned at Lucas. "Small world huh?"

"Of course Maylene knows you," Terra snapped.

"Um, just stuff…" Dawn said, her voice getting smaller and smaller. Maylene's eyes were filled with rage now.

"Do you realize how long I've been waiting in the gym?"

"Hold it!" Damion's eyes widened with shock, as he looked from Maylene to Dawn who seemed even more embarrassed. "YOU are the one who Maylene was supposed to challenge before me?"

"It's a very long story," Dawn said, "Do you really want me to explain it?"

"Yes, I agree with the girl, I don't think you would have the time." Everybody immediately flinched at the cold female voice that echoed in the room. Terra, Donovan, and Maylene had their fists in fighting position. Dawn looked frightened while Damion was still seething mad. However, Lucas seemed to be shaking to the very core of his body. His eyes were glazed over as though the voice seemed be haunting his very mind.

"Lucas?" Dawn said, looking over at the shaking boy. "Are you oka-?"

"Get down!" Terra yelled as he pushed Damion away just in time as something heavy fell to the ground. THUNK!

"AHHH!" Dawn and Lucas yelled as they split direction as another large something almost crushed them. THUNK!

"GANGWAY!" Donovan yelled as he and Maylene ran too. THUNK!

"Everybody okay?" Terra yelled as he got up from the ground. He suddenly realized that he was enclosed by what appeared to be large metal walls that suddenly appeared out of nowhere. Apparently, the round shape dome had been split into three equal parts so that the room that Terra was in was like a slice of pie. Terra then noticed that the only person in the small enclosed space with him was Damion who was already at the wall and pounding.

"DAWN! LUCAS!"

Terra immediately went to the other wall and started pounding as well. "DONOVAN! MAYLENE! ANSWER ME!"

"You should save your energy or else you're going to lose." Damion and Terra turned around and saw a strange woman who was walking down some steps. She had purple hair that was tied up into weird balloon shapes. She was wearing what appeared to be black and white space clothes. Her boots clicked at every step she took. It was then that Terra realized that the wall had somehow made a door that seemed to be swallowing up darkness from behind. Immediately, the door closed and blended in so well that Terra couldn't distinguish it from the wall.

"So this is why Mars wanted to borrow my henchman?" the woman scoffed as she held up what appeared to be…

"Hey! That's Lucas'! Give it back!" Damion roared in anger. Terra immediately frowned, wondering what the purpose of splitting them up like this was. Who was this woman? Was this one of the superiors that the masked grunt mentioned earlier?

"Oh I think not," the woman said, licking her red cherry lips. She watched Damion with a bit of interest. "Not when I am finally able to play again. You two boys will do just fine." She took out a Poke ball and Terra realized what was going to happen.

"Damion! Get back!" Next thing Terra and Damion knew, a huge blast of fire came straight at them.

…

"Tee hee, looks like I found you again," Mars grinned as she looked at her two captured prey. Mars watched with particular amusement at the little boy in front of her who looked paralyzed with fear. "Miss me much? Lucas?"

"Do you know her?" Donovan asked confused at Lucas. The boy didn't respond and started to shake again, this time harder. "Lucas?"

"Of course," Mars grinned, "Last time was a painful memory wasn't it? And guess one, this one will be even more painful."

…

"Who are you?" Maylene demanded as she raised her fists against the strange person coming toward Dawn and her. Maylene's Pokemon had the same expression on their faces. Dawn looked bewildered and scared and glanced at the walls that enclosed her. She hoped Lucas and Damion were okay.

"I see, this is a bit of a problem now that the gym leader is here," the man said. He had blue hair that spiked up in two places. He wore a strange space suit vest and dark pants. "Looks like things will need to be handled to the extreme."

"I asked who are you and why have you caged us all? Answer me!" Commander Saturn looked up annoyed at Maylene's voice. However, he looked at Dawn with more interest. The girl seemed to be a bit uncomfortable at the staring and her Prinplup seemed to be trying to glare back at Saturn.

"I can't believe Mars forced me to take care of this. Making me waste time," he sighed as he took out his Poke ball. "Still, I'll make sure that this battle ends in a minute. I got a kidnapping job to do."

**Author's Notes**

Hey guys. So apparently, I have been kidnapped by my characters and locked in a room and only managed to escape just now to say something in the author notes.

Yes, updates will most likely be faster and I apologize for a short chapter and the late update. Let's just say, I've been having too much fun today despite the fact I promised myself to update today. XP

Good news is that for my b-day I might be getting Black or White Pokemon game (finally). Just need to decide which one I really want.

Let's thank my reviewers before I go.

…

**Light-Sakura**

**Meta-Akira**

**ZXCVBNMEM**

**Pikana**

**HikariKotoneLyrics**

**Assassin42**

**dark5523**

**InBetweenMemories**

**RWT**

**DreadlyRise**

**KoreanoWaltz**

**PokemonTrainerYellow** (Thanks for reviewing and glad you enjoy!)

**Trainer-Ken**

**Solyeuse** (lol. And I took an extremely long time to write this as well. Sorry about that and thanks for reviewing. XD)

**JayCee247**

…

Thank you all for reading and I'll see you in the next chapter. Now I must dash before my characters try to kidnap me again. Wish me luck! :D

**-JapanDreamer**


	72. No One Won

**Disclaimer: I'm telling you! I didn't disappear for two months because I was trying to find ways to own Pokemon!**

Hey guys, it's been a while. A long while. Good news is that this chapter is extremely long. No joke. Almost seventeen pages single space. Probably a new record. (insert fan applauses)

Also, there are a lot of battles and a lot of OCs so get ready to look forward to it.

Anyways, I've got important news at the bottom in my **Author****'****s****Notes** so please check it out after reading.

Enjoy the massive reading.

EDIT: This chapter is revised for spelling and grammar purposes. Some events are revised because they are going to be important later on. I would like to thank **SinCityAssassin42** for helping me out. You have been a big help.

...

"Pah, this is pathetic," Jupiter yawned as she watched the flames continue to spread. "I was hoping for something more entertaining since I was given some time off," her Skuntank's Flamethrower was doing a pretty good job scorching up the place. The flames did no damage to the walls however, since they were made of incredibly durable insulation. She inspected the Pokedex in her hand; it didn't look that interesting to her, despite its technological abilities.

"Yeah? Well think again!" Jupiter blinked in surprise at the sound of people not being burned alive. She watched the smoke and flames died out and was shocked to find the two boys almost unharmed by the inferno, save for their slight redness. A bright blue barrier surrounded them, made by the Medicham. It had used Detect to negate Skuntank's attack.

"Don't you dare try to underestimate us," Terra said calmly as he stared straight into his opponent's eye. "The Fist, use Brick Break!" The psychic type charged forward and slammed his hands down in a karate chop style, knocking the Pokémon down with incredible force.

"Wait, what kind of name is 'The Fist'?" Damion asked, looking oddly at Terra who scowled back at him.

"I'll name my Pokemon however I want; I don't need you to criticize my choices!"

"I wasn't!" Damion snapped back, "I just think it's weird that you named your Pokémon 'The Fist' instead of just 'Fist'! Why would you want to add 'The' in the name?" Jupiter watched them bicker for a few more moments; it didn't take a genius to guess that they were not getting along entirely well.

"Hmph," she grunted musingly. "You two are starting to get more entertaining, but if you guys don't work together, you're going to lose quickly. Skuntank, use Poison Gas!"

The skunk Pokémon immediately lift up its tail and toxic gas spewed forth to fill up the opposite side of the room, too much for the vents to air out. "Let's see if you can survive that!"

"Staravia, blow it away with Gust!" Damion ordered. The Pokémon frantically flapped its wings to blow the fumes back but with such a small and condensed room, that was near impossible. Skuntank saw this distraction to try and attack the Medicham again with a Night Slash.

"Detect!" Terra ordered, the Pokémon immediately put up another barrier to shield against the dark ebbed claws.

"You know you can't keep that up forever!" Jupiter cackled. The toxic fumes inched closer and closer, despite their resistance. Terra cursed under his breath, the freaky purple hair woman was right; there was no way they could win at this rate if they were always on the defense.

The only possible solution was to get more room or fight outside; then Terra could take care of this battle no problem; he was a lot more comfortable fighting in a larger area. "Skuntank, use Flamethrower!"

"That's it!" Damion said, taking out another Poke ball. "Buizel, you're up!" The water weasel Pokémon popped out of its Poke ball. Before Damion could even give a command, the Pokemon shot forth in a veil of water straight through the Skuntank's Flamethrower, putting out the stream of fire.

"Buizel!" Damion whined, "You're supposed to wait until I give an order before you attack." The Pokemon looked back at his immature trainer and stuck his tongue out at him.

"ARGH! Why don't you respect me?" Damion complained, immediately infuriated by the Buizel's smug attitude. The trainer started to stomp the ground like he had a tantrum. Medicham groaned at all of the noises it was hearing. It couldn't find its inner peace if it kept being disturb like this.

"_Now_ who looks like the idiot?" Terra muttered.

"What did you say?" Damion snapped back.

"I said, 'Now. Who. Looks. Like. The iiiidiot.'" Terra repeated, only louder and slowly as if he was talking a dimwit,

"Why I 'oughta—"

"You two! Don't ignore me!" Jupiter yelled. "Skuntank, Shadow Claw!"

"Shut up!" Damion and Terra both yelled at the same time at Jupiter, who took a step back, surprised by the outburst.

"Buizel!"

"Medicham!"

"**ICE PUNCH!**" they yelled simultaneously. Both Pokemon turned towards their opponent in synchronicity, and charged forward with their fists in covered in ice. Their fists slammed hard against the large purple skunk Pokemon, freezing the fur around the contact area and releasing an explosion of icy mist. The combined attacks knocked it back all the way to the end of the room, completely passed out.

"W… What," Jupiter said in shock. For a moment, silence filled the room with uneasy tension as the commander stared at them.

"Whoa, that was… unexpected actually," finally blurted a stunned Damion as he turned to Terra who merely stood there, silently shocked. Buizel and Medicham turned to each other before shrugging their shoulders and silently exchanging a high-five.

"I guess we can work together, sort of," Terra muttered and glanced at Damion. "How about we go ahead and finish this? Afterwards, we can go back to arguing later."

"All right, sounds like a plan," Damion said, moving his arm around as though to rev up for a powerful punch. "I'm more of an action person anyways. Hey lady! That the best you can do? We're barely getting started!" Damon shouted directly to the woman, who she didn't respond. In fact, her head was bowed down and her expression was hidden. It was evident though that Jupiter was just dripping with rage.

"Don't you dare… Don't you _dare_ look down on me!" Jupiter roared in anger. It was safe to say she looked furious, which is to say her eyes became the personification of murder. Damion and Terra tensed up as they realize that this woman wasn't going to go easy anymore; that was when she took out another Poke ball.

"Get ready!" Terra said sharply to their Pokemon as the Poke ball hit the ground and opened, showering a brilliant flash of light. Immediately, as the light faded away, a large shadow, no, an immense shadow loomed over them; Damion, Terra, and their Pokémon stared up in horror.

"What the hell is _that_?"

…

The Purugly wasted no time dashing off towards the trainers, setting its sights on Lucas. Donovan saw this and quickly grabbed Lucas by the shoulder, pulling him away from Purugly's vicious claw attacks. The nasty cat was ferocious, only targeting Lucas' vulnerable body; his Grotle and Drifloon were trying to shield him, but it proved difficult for their slower movement to catch up and stop the red hair woman's Pokémon.

"Lucas! Are you okay? Come on guy! Talk or something!" Donovan pleaded; Lucas didn't respond and continued to shake with fear. It was like all the feelings of dread and fright he tried to repress earlier came out bursting, slowly eating his will away.

_What is wrong with this kid?_ Donovan wondered. _One minute he was acting fine and the next he—_

"What's wrong, little boy? Too scared from last time?" Mars giggled at the helplessness of her target. "Purugly, use Shadow Claw and take him out of his misery!" Mars thought Lucas was defenseless, and assuming Donovan was the same was a mistake. The older trainer immediately reacted, pulling out one of his Poke ball and activating it in the blink of an eye. A brilliant red light shone forth and before the Purugly was a shrew-like Pokemon with the sharp brown prickly scales on its back. The slash attack was stopped by its rattling armor; the shrew looked its trainer, who merely gestured him to fight. It turned back to the Purugly, narrowing its black beady eyes as it thrust its giant claws right in front of the feline's face, forcing the fat cat back hissing in anger.

"Oh nice, so you have a Sandslash," Mars said, sounding interested in Donovan for once. "You look like a decent trainer after all."

"I'm sorry," Donovan said calmly. His Sandslash raised its claws up in a battle position. "Even though you're a girl, I still won't go easy on you." Donovan sounded so different from before, he was eerily calm; in one minute he went from a slightly (just slightly) crazy person to a calm, collected fighter, looking at Mars without a single trace of fear. The sort of shift in personality would boggle the mind of anyone who witnessed it, but it's how Donovan always operated; he was only serious at the appropriate moment.

"You're talking to me or my Pokemon? Cause if you were talking to me, there was no chance in the galaxy that you could land a hit," Mars said with a laughing grin on her face. Were it any other occasion, Donovan would have continued along with the banter if he weren't so intent on finishing this battle quickly.

"Morraco, hit that cat with a Poison Sting!" The porcupine Pokemon released deadly purple needles. Purugly flinched and tried to lumber further away, but Donovan would have none of that. "Charge at it with Rollout!" Morraco curled up into a small ball rolled rapidly. Purugly tried to dodge it but Donovan's Pokemon made a sharp turn and hit the cat Pokemon from behind repeatedly. Mar's Purugly hissed angrily in pain, the Rock-type attack was doing a heavy number on it.

"Oh my! You CAN fight after all. That's great; I enjoy a challenge! Purugly, use Hypnosis!" Purugly's eye turned a mesmerizing blue, trying to lock onto the rampaging shrew to no avail.

"Won't work if Morraco keeps moving!" Donovan shouted as the Sandslash continued the attack, not losing a single bit of momentum. Purugly screeched in pain as it tried to dodge again.

"Hmmp, don't even think that hiding in a ball of spikes will let you win THAT easily. Purugly, throw it off its tracks!" The Purugly was hesitant at the command, but proceeded to swat at the spiked ball, only to yowl in pain when making contact.

"Come on!" Mars snapped. "I didn't train you to be this soft! Get him NOW!" Morocco was turning a corner Purugly slammed it with its body and managed enough force to send the Sandslash airborne. Now dazed in the air, Morocco became an easy target. "Good! Now hit it with a Hyper Beam!"

"Morraco!" Donovan yelled as he tried to return his Pokemon in his ball, but Purugly's attack was faster than his response. The powerful blast of energy hit the shrew Pokemon dead-on, smashing him against the heavy wall that encircled them. For a moment, Donovan thought this wouldn't be a bad thing since the wall would break from the excessive force and they could get out of here. Unfortunately, the wall stood strong, only scuffed by the attack.

"Oh don't get your hopes up," she gloated, seeing Donovan's deflated expression, " that was is made of 4 feet of solid concrete! A little bashing won't even make a crack!"

Donovan ignored her and ran to his Sandslash, who tried to push himself up until he didn't have any more energy and fell to the ground, defeated.

"Morraco!"

"So that's it huh?"

"No way!" Donovan snapped, not skipping a beat and taking out another Poke ball. "Let's go!" Now, a purple ghost with menacing hands that seemed to be detachable popped out and gave a nasty grin.

"What? No Sinnoh Pokemon?" Mars asked in a sarcastic voice.

"Sorry to burst your bubble, but it doesn't take Sinnoh Pokemon to bring you down. Guile! Use Sucker Punch!" The ghost Pokemon heckled loudly and turned invisible as Mar's Purugly prepared a bite attack. The Pokemon looked around before the Haunter popped up from behind and slammed its fist against the cat.

"Hey! No fair!" Mars yelled, frustrated. She pouted for a moment before grinning again, as if she was just playing along. "But then again," she continued, Donovan was suspicious at her change of tone, "my Pokemon may not be able to hit your ghost with its usual attacks, but then your ghost Pokemon can't handle ghost attacks. Now Purugly, Shadow Claw!"

"Guile! Dodge it!" Donovan ordered his Pokemon, slightly panicking. He knew that Purugly was strong; being able to withstand Morroco's Poison Sting _and_ Rollout while managing to knock him out. Its Hyper Beam attack was the only reason he had Guile out in the first place; even so, the Haunter would be in trouble if he didn't move quickly enough.

Before the Haunter could do anything to dodge, however, Lucas' Grotle blocked the Purugly's path with its hard shell, holding firm and pushing it back. This stalled the Purugly long enough for Drifloon to use its thin strings-like arms to wrap around the Purugly's neck and try to choke it out.

"MEORWWW!" Purugly screeched as it tried to claw at the Drifloon, Grotle continued to push the cat back with opposite force. Without any noticeable command by Donovan, the Haunter took a chance and attacked with another Sucker Punch as the Purugly prepared another Bite attack at the Drifloon. He landed a critical hit, knocking the cat into the air before it crashed into the ground, knocked out.

"Oh, so you're all ganging up on a sweet little girl like me, huh? Well then, no more Mrs. Nice Evil Woman!" Mars took out another Poke ball.

"Let's go! Magnezone!" the form of the large robotic magnet Pokemon came out hovering like a UFO. It stared through its one red eye with a menacing glare. Mars pulled her fingers through her hair with confidence before giving out her order.

"Thunder Wave!" Immediately, electricity crackled out of the Magnezone's magnets and shot out at all three Pokemon. They all dropped to the ground, paralyzed and in pain. Donovan was beginning to worry, this woman knew her stuff and she was tough as hell. He needed to switch to another Pokemon fast but before he could do so, Magnezone shout out another blast of static electricity, straight at Donovan himself.

"GAHHH!" He could feel the electricity running down his body, he kneeled down in pain, paralyzed and unable to move; he couldn't even move his fingertips. Donovan was shaking, not just from the electricity, but also from fear. This was bad, really, really bad!

"Sorry I have to cut this short, but it's time to say goodbye. Magnezone, Zap Cannon!" The next thing Donovan knew, he was staring at a large ball of electricity swiftly coming straight at him.

…

"What is up with this guy?" Maylene said, exhausted and panting tiredly. Dawn was gasping as well, her muscles sore and she felt exhausted from running around.

"Hmph, so both of you managed to hold off for five minutes," the mysterious blue hair man said. In front of him, he saw the pink hair girl's Riolu and Meditite on the ground and the target's Prinplup barely able to stand. They were all poisoned, of course that wasn't a surprise, his Toxicroak was ten times stronger than any wild one and its Poison Jab was quite efficient.

The large frog-like dark purple Pokemon stood on its two legs and raised its knuckle claws that seemed to be glowing purple. Its red throat sac bulged and it bellowed a croak, revealing a nasty, sadistic grin.

"Toxicroak, get rid of these pests," Saturn yawned as he looked dully at his nails. Oh that's just great, now he was picking up Jupiter's habits. Saturn's large Pokemon quickly charged at Riolu and Meditite.

"Detect!" Meditite thrust itself forward to block the attack with its barrier. "Now Riolu!" The small blue colored wolf Pokemon jumped forward and slammed its paws against Toxicroak's face. The toad backed away a step or two from the force and scowled, showing a nasty frown.

"Prinplup!" Dawn ordered haggardly, "Metal Claw!" The penguin struggled to up itself again and charged at the Toxicroak, slashing at it with its sharpened flippers. The large creature backed away again from the attack, but merely shrugged off the damage. Unfortunately their efforts weren't enough as the Pokemon was way too strong. On top of that, their Pokemon was slowly being drained of their health from the poison as they spoke.

"Why? Why isn't anything working?" Maylene yelled in desperation. Although her Pokemon were going at it pretty tough, this Toxicroak didn't even seemed fazed by any of their attacks.

"Shame," Saturn said, his stuck up tone hinted that he was not at all worried about his Pokemon despite the disadvantage in number. " And here I thought the gym leader of Veilstone could put up a better fight. I guess I was gravely mistaken."

"_What!_" Maylene yelled intensely, glaring daggers at the bored look on Saturn's face. "I'll show you whose better! Riolu and Meditite! Go!"

"Maylene! Hold on!" Dawn pleaded. "That's way too reckless." Maylene couldn't hear Dawn at all as rage clouded her judgment; she recklessly charged at her enemy in her fury.

"Toxicroak, stop them with a Sludge Bomb." Ooze began leaking out of the toxic frog's skin and into its hands. It formed the ooze into spheres repeatedly as it began throwing them out in every direction his enemies took. Soon, the whole area was covered in a disgusting purple slime, fumes gushing out of them and looked to be extremely toxic.

The chunks of sludge narrowly miss Maylene and her two Pokemon as they charge thanks to their heightened reflexes. In a matter of time though, her two Pokemon inhaled too much of the toxic fumes and lost their footage, tumbling to the ground close to unconsciousness. Maylene rushed onward and began attacking Saturn with every kick and every maneuver she knew, only for him to barely dodge every one of them. Eventually the fumes were also taking a toll on her and she slowed her movement enough for Saturn to take his chance and punch her in the temple before shoving her into the wall with his foot.

"**NO!**" Dawn yelled, but she immediately put her sleeve to her face, trying to avoid inhaling more of the toxic fumes, with her Prinplup mimicking her actions. She wanted to go and get Maylene and her Pokemon away from the fumes. Nevertheless, Dawn could feel her body slowly losing strength.

"Futile," Saturn said, "This toxic sludge is not going anywhere soon and inhaling this fume will render you immobilized. You're just lucky this isn't my partner's Pokemon, hers would've just killed you outright," he spoke calmly as he took out a gas mask, which allowed him safe haven amidst the clouds of toxic gas.

With it on, he seemed even more menacing, his breathing sounding like rushes of static. Dawn couldn't see his face anymore and felt terrified, because of this she could no longer gauge what the man was thinking. "Now, I see it fit to end this as quickly as possible." Saturn walked slowly, taking his sweet time relishing a victory over his helpless enemy.

_If only the sludge wasn't here…_ Dawn thought as she slowly sank to unconsciousness, her arms falling limp to her side. Her vision turned fuzzy as she saw the man stood before and reached toward her face with a menacing looking hand, her Prinplup protecting her still form.

…

Goldenrod City…

"Where in the world are you?" Daniel winced at the loud voice coming from the phone. "Ooooh no, let me guess. Goldenrod right? Don't tell me you slept past the time for the ferry to arrive? I've been trying to call you all day! Do you know how worried I was?" Daniel groaned as he felt his head throbbing from the yelling. He had been shouted almost to deafness by that girl earlier and didn't want another lecture again when Fuuta was in this mood…

"No I didn't Fuuta. Well, I sort of did, but I wasn't really sleeping because I wanted to… well I wanted to but… well," Daniel sighed, wondering if his psychic friend would even believe anything that had happened to him. Daniel could feel Fuuta's frustration through the phone. "I'm sorry, I got… caught up in a situation and I'm at the hospital."

"Wait… what?" Fuuta asked sharply through the phone, his anger had melted away, only to be replaced with worry. The comment had caught the psychic by surprise, irony aside. "Did you say hospital? What happened?" Daniel wondered how many questions Fuuta could ask in one phone call, especially long distance. He hoped this didn't cost more money than local.

"I'm not hurt. Just… some stuff happened that I can't really say on the phone right now."

"What is it? Tell me! Don't make me do long distance mind reading because I will do that!"

"You sound like you could be my nagging wife," Daniel groaned, knowing Fuuta wouldn't hesitate to do just that. Daniel wasn't in his usual easygoing mood and felt like hanging up the phone and going to sleep. Everything that had happened today had taken a real toll on him.

"Isn't that Shiki's job?" Fuuta retorted. "Well whatever, as soon as you guys get married, you're going to have two nagging wives bothering you, and you know that you can't win no matter what."

"Stoooooop that," Daniel said, blushing at the thought of Shiki wearing a wedding dress.

_Her long red hair flowing like a waterfall and her gray eyes glimmering with happiness as she walked down the… wait, wait__**.**_ Daniel cut his imagination short and he shook his head back to reality; he was way too young to think about stuff like that. "You may be able to read minds and move stuff but you can't see into the future."

"You'd be surprise," Fuuta muttered. He was thinking about that time he went into that boy's head and saw those tombstones and that name, He shook himself out of that though, that vision had to have been a mistake.

"Huh? What did you say?"

"Nothing," Fuuta said quickly. "Look, just tell me what's going on. You don't hide stuff from me unless it's something really that bad." Before Daniel could open his mouth for a response, he noticed the time on the clock hanging from the wall; he realized that he had to get going if he wanted to tell that girl about the time for the next ferry to Sinnoh region.

"I'll tell you later," Daniel said quickly, "I just wanted to tell you that I'm running late but I will call you when I get there."

"What? Daniel! Daniel don't you dare hang up on m-" Daniel hun up on him midsentence and sighed. His gut instinct told him that going back to Sinnoh was bad news. But he had another gut feeling telling him that if he didn't go back, things were going to take a turn from bad to worse. Fuuta wouldn't hesitate to throttle his brain until all of his secrets were out in the open. Shuddering at the idea, Daniel quickly walked down the hall.

_Let's hope nothing goes wrong this time._

…

Ven woke up in a daze and as his vision started to focus he realized that he was staring at a white ceiling. He could hear a faint beeping sound and saw that the noise was coming from a machine connected to him; it was a heart monitor. Ven watched the green line spike up and done for a while before he noticed the smell of disinfectant and the white sheets that covered his body. Was this a hospital? Why was he in the hospital?

That's when everything hit Ven at once – the kidnapping at the Pokemon Contest, running away with that Daniel guy (who also called himself Fred), the sound of gunfire and the bullet hitting his stomach. He wondered just how long has he been out and just how did he manage to survive.

Moaning slightly, Ven tried to move his body but realized that it took too much effort; even turning his head to the side took a lot out of him. It was as though his entire body had suddenly gained enormous amount of heavy weight. Ven saw that his left arm had an IV sticking in it and connected to a bag of saline, inside it was a small steady rhythmic drip.

"Oh! You're awake?" Ven rolled his eyes as far to the side as he possibly could and saw a girl he couldn't recognize, sitting on a chair next to his bed. She had bags under her eyes and her black hair was messy and unattended to, she looked like she's had an extremely long day. "Gosh, you've been asleep for ages. I was wondering when you'd get up. You're lucky to be alive you know that? If Daniel wasn't there to take you to the hospital, you'd probably be dead now." Ven blinked for a moment, wondering if he was missing something.

"S-sorry, but do I know you?" Ven asked in a coarse, raspy voice and he suddenly realized that he was thirsty. The girl noticed this, and looked around confusingly for water. Finding it in her sight, she got up and filled a glass of water from the pitcher on the table next to Ven's bed. She took a drinking straw and placed it close to Ven's mouth. The boy gratefully took a long sip of the water until the glass was empty. A small clanking sound from setting down the glass rang through the room in the silence between the two.

"Thanks. You're a really nice person," Ven finally said, grinning weakly. The girl blinked for a moment before turning slightly pink at the compliment.

"D-don't mention it." She seemed to look rather flustered now, which puzzled Ven, who wondered what was up with her as she averted his gaze.

"So, um," Ven said, ending the silence, "Do I know you?"

"Oh! Umm," the girl struggled to say, turning red from embarrassment, "I'm Celest. I-I'm here to ask you some questions." Celest immediately cursed herself inside of her head. She wasn't supposed to say her real name! Now she felt stupid, this was not how a professional should act. But she couldn't take those words back; she needed to focus on the main topic.

"Oh," Ven said drowsily, oblivious to Celest's mental battle. He let out a small yawn and began dozing off again. "If you want to know if I'm hungry or not, the answer is yes. I could use some noodle soup or maybe pot roast... But I guess I could get that later when I feel more awake. Night, it was nice talking to you…" Before Celest could say anything, Ven fell back asleep, breathing deeply and sleeping peacefully for once.

"Wait a minute!" Celest exclaimed, both annoyed and surprised by Ven's sudden slumber, "Don't just fall asleep on me! And that wasn't what I wanted to ask you anyway!" Her shouting went on deaf ear, as Ven was still sound asleep. Despite her questions, she decided against trying to wake him up again. He looked so peaceful as though his near death experience had never happened to him. Celest stared at his face longer than she realized and quickly averted her gaze to anywhere else in the room, despite the fact no one was actually watching her stare at him.

Suddenly, a beeping sound blared from her earpiece, causing Celest to jump up in surprise. She had forgot that it was in her ear in the first place. She grimaced. She knew exactly who was calling her, and it definitely didn't take a rocket science to know why the person was calling her. Celest swiftly pressed a button on the headset to pick up the call.

"Sir?" she greeted meekly. She could feel her arms shaking every so slightly.

"Finally," the voice growled from the other line. "Don't tell me you sneaked into the warehouse without my permission." Celest bit her lip at his tone She thought she was going to get into even more trouble. "Well? Did you or did you not?" Celest wondered if she should give a slightly witty comment but decided against it.

"Y-yes," Celest whispered. She still remembered that she was in the hospital and though she was on a secure line, she couldn't risk the notion that she might be overheard. "You're over there?"

"Over there?" The man repeated as though Celest was mocking him. "With all the sirens and news reporters around, I _really_ doubt I had to come over here to figure out something gone wrong, but now that I think about it, where are _you_?"

Celest groaned inwardly; her boss was going to flare up in rage if he finds out that she got involved with civilians. He might even dock her pay. Great… just great.

"Well, you see…" Celest said, taking a deep breath and deciding to face the music, "What happened was…"

She began to tell her superior the full story, not realizing that the door to the room opened just a small crack. Somebody on the other side was listening in on her entire conversation.

…

Veilstone City…

"Where in the world are they?" Leander muttered as he walked around, still soaking wet from his spectacular dive in the fountain. Every step he took left a wet footprint behind, his shoes squeaking slightly. He was attracting a lot of attention because of this, and normally the looks would bother him but he had more pressing things to worry about.

Dawn and Lucas had completely disappeared and he couldn't find either of them. After seeing the crowd congregate around the warehouse where the fire had started, Leander was worried that something might have happened to the two of them.

As much as Leander wanted to check out the hype, he didn't want to do it while there were still reporters about. The last thing he wanted was his face plastered on every single television.

"Hey! Can you hear me?" Leander jumped upon hearing the sudden shout. He had been lost in thought and didn't take in his surrounding. Leander looked around to see a spikey, brown hair guy wearing an Eevee shirt and a black baseball cap. The guy looked out of breath as though he had run a lot before coming here.

"What happened here?" the kid demanded. Leander was visibly uncomfortable with the guy's forceful question. He didn't didn't sound angry, but he did sound a bit desperate. Why was this guy asking him specifically? It was not clear to Leander, however, that the trainer asked because he assumed Leander would know the details as he looked like he was hosed down by the firefighters at the scene.

"Well, umm. Ok, before I answer you," Leander fumbled, still looking slightly uncomfortable but nevertheless wanting to be polite. "May I ask who you are?"

"What? Why would you need to know? Who are you?" the guy said, narrowing his eyes at the strangely polite yet soaking teenager. Leander could tell that this guy seemed to be on his toes and looked totally suspicious.

"Um," Leander sputtered, not really wanting to say his name either. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to insult you or anything but you haven't really been in a… friendly mood." After a moment of uncomfortable silence, the trainer sighed and his tough attitude disappeared to Leander's shock.

"I'm sorry," he muttered, "it's just that… well, I'm dealing with a personal issue and kind of need to know what's going on here…" The guy paused a moment before saying, "I'm Tory."

"Okay," Leander said, a little but stunned at the sudden change in attitude. "I'm Leander. Nice to meet you, Tory." Leander held out his hand and Tory, hesitating slightly, took it and both of them shook.

"So… do you know what's going on?"

"Ummm, unfortunately no."

"Then why in the world are you soaking wet?" Tory asked, wide eyed.

"That is a… well… It's a long story." Leander felt his face turn bright red and was burning with embarrassment. Troy looked curiously at Leander but decided not to press the question any further.

"Okay then, never mind," Tory muttered. He was about to turn and leave when something caught his eye from behind Leander. Tory's face soon twisted in shock and he immediately ducked down.

"Is there something wrong?" Leander asked as he turned around to look, only seeing the large crowd near him. Tory grabbed Leander by the shirt collar and pulled him down to the ground. "Hey!" the crowd turned around at the yelp and looked at the two boys with interest before directing their sites back at the fire. "Careful! I've just ironed my shirt." Leander complained, which was a thing to say about a shirt that was already wet and ruined.

"Shhh! Listen carefully," Tory hushed at him, not wanting to be overheard, "and don't repeat this to anyone else, but I need to get into that factory building without everyone noticing. Do you know a way in?"

Leander's first thought was asking rhetorically whether or not the guy knew exactly how many laws Leander would break to do so and then realized that he knew already – 34 laws and minimum of ten years in prison… and a very heavy fine... oh, and several months of community service. If there was something worse Leander didn't like than being on television, it was being on television for being a petty criminal and being forced to ask his parents for bail money.

However, something about this trainer made Leander feel like this was important that if he didn't help this guy out, something bad was going to happen. It was a gut feeling, and gut feelings never ended well for him, but Leander decided to trust it this time.

"Ok…" Leander thought carefully, raking through his thoughts. When he was reading the guidebook of this city, Leander was fascinated about the section, talking briefly about the Galactic Enterprise Headquarter. The building just jutted out into the skyline and didn't match the aesthetic feel of the city.

He went through the nearest library to gather information he needed, even going to the public service building to study blueprints of the entire facility. Of course, he didn't need to know any of these things, he just wanted to spend his time studying and learning, even something as meaningless as how a building was built. The odds of this information being useful in such a short span of time was nothing short of fate.

"Well, I do recall an old underground sewer that leads straight there under there." Leander finally stated, having his eureka moment. He remembered coming across the information while studying the water irrigation portion of his research. What piqued his interest was an old article from a newspaper in the library's archive.

"From what I remember, Veilstone City compromised with Pastoria City to build a new drainage system that ran down away from Pastoria's marshes in order to protect the ecosystem. I noticed that those new systems ran from the mountains."

"Ok, I don't know how this is helping me."

"Let me finish, after comparing several blueprints, I noticed there was an abandoned sewer line left over from the old system that's connected to the current one; if I'm correct, that is the line that connects right under Galactic Enterprises."

"Do you have these blueprints?" Tory asked excitedly. To him, this was extremely valuable information; turns out it _was_ a smart thing to ask a well dressed, but completely soaked stranger for questions.

"Well… no," Leander admitted, "I didn't see a need for it anymore. And I wasn't allowed to take blueprints out of the building," Tory closed his eyes for a second, a bit deep in thought.

"Well, I don't have time to go to the public library and look up this information, so I need you to get me through that sewer system." Leader's jaw touched the floor after hearing the plan.

"Are you mad or just reckless?" Leander exclaimed.

"Ok, I know that sneaking into a secured corporate building sounds risky, like really risky." Tory said slowly, "we'll probably serve consecutive life sentences if we get caught by them."

"You aren't helping your case."

"But the thing is that I need to get there. My si-." Tory stopped, realizing he already said too much and backtracked. "This is very important to me, so please, I need your help." He sounded desperate again.

"Do you have _any_ idea what you're getting into?"

"I need to get there to figure it out," Tory started to explain. "I've dug up some shady stuff about those Galactic guys and…"

"No, not the building. I'm talking about the sewers! Do you have any idea how much… STUFF is down there? Dirty, filthy stuff?" Tory blinked in silent disbelief as Leander shuddered involuntarily; he sounded like a neat freak that was just told to stick their hand into a vat of grease. "It's so icky!"

"Hey, you two!" A voice called out. Tory and Leander flinched. Leander looked over and saw that it was apparently police officers coming over. Apparently, Tory's and Leander's crouched down behavior brought suspicious attention from the cops.

"Oh come on!" Tory hissed, grabbing Leander by the arm to pull him up and run.

"Oh, great," Leander groaned as he realized what he gotten himself into. This was definitely something not good, so much for following gut instinct.

Behind an alleyway, a man in a trench coat turned the corner and watched the two vacate the premises in a rush. The man decided to leave them be, as there were more important fish to fry. He'll inform the authorities later, but for now, he needed to get into the Galactic Warehouse; it was time to deal with the real problem at hand.

…

"That's a Tangrowth!" Terra exclaimed at the massive, blue spaghetti noodle-looking Pokemon. The only thing that could be seen from this massive blue noodles was two beady little eyes. That wasn't what startled Terra however; it was because his Pokemon was twice the size of a normal Tangrowth. Its shadow alone could loom over Drifblim. _What is that woman feeding that thing?_ Terra wondered.

"Looks kind of ugly, to be honest," Damion said, squinting his eyes. Slighted, the angry Tangrowth smashed one of its long tendrils at the spot where Damion stood. Had it not been for Terra's quick shove, Damion would've been crushed underneath Tangrowth's massive vine. It screeched loudly.

"I guess it doesn't like being called ugly," Terra muttered and turned his attention to Medicham. It was a good thing that his Pokemon had effective attacks against grass types like this one. "Ice Punch!"

"Oh no, no _this_ time!" Jupiter called out. "Tangrowth, Wring Out!" The Pokemon grabbed Medicham just as it was about to connect its fist to the Vine Pokemon and choked the Medicham with its vines.

"The Fist!" Terra called out in panic.

"Not so tough now, are you?" Jupiter flashed an evil grin. "Let's smash the weakling into to pieces!"

"Staravia, distract Tangrowth!" Damion said, "Buizel! Use Aqua Jet to help out Medicham!" Buizel, deciding it wasn't a good time to disobey, used its Aqua Jet as a shield before charging forward. Staravia flew forward and pecked out Tangrowth's eyes. The pain caused it to falter back and release Medicham from its death grip. Buizel zipped by at a rapid pace and managed to grab Medicham before he crashed to the ground.

"Get rid of those pests with a Vine Whip!" Tangrowth's long blue vines quickly rose into the air before violently whipping their way towards Buizel.

"Staravia! Buizel!" Damion cried out, worried that the two wouldn't be able to dodge. They were doing well so far; their lucky streak won't last long. Despite sea weasel's efforts, one of the vines eventually connected and knocked Buizel crashing to the ground. "Buizel! Staravia, hang in there!" Staravia squawked in response to the attacks, but still managed to dodge the flailing vines.

Terra grabbed Medicham and noticed that the Pokemon was already down to its last health. Oh, that's just great; this battle just turned from bad to worse.

"Well now," Jupiter said, "Looks like you rats should give up before you embarrass yourselves even further."

Tangrowth's Wring Out attacks worked best when the Pokemon has high health; if Terra just sent out another Pokemon, they would just end up getting beaten like Medicham. They could try fighting now, but that Tangrowth wasn't even tried.

He looked at Damion's angered and desperate expression and then to his Pokemon; Buizel was down and Staravia was too busy dodging to attack. All those blue vines act like they have a mind on its own. It wasn't about fighting against one Pokemon anymore; it was fighting against a hundred.

_What are we going to do now?_

…

"W-what the heck? Mars gasped as the smoke caused by the electrical blast dissipated, revealing a perfectly un-charbroiled Donovan. The guy coughed several times before looking around him, he looked just as surprised as Mars. "What's going on?" she demanded.

"Shinx!" a little voice cried out. Donovan looked in front of him and noticed a little blue Shinx, but what caught his eye was Lucas, who looked much better for wear than before. Granted, anything else was an improvement from violently trembling in fear, but that's beside the point. The Shinx growled menacingly at the Magnezone, remember the humiliation he was dealt with from the last battle they had.

"Guess I have to battle more seriously…" Lucas said, surprising Mars. She didn't even notice that Lucas had moved to save his Pokemon. He returned most of them back into their Poke balls, with Shinx let out to fight; Lucas went to give it a potion and went back to looking at her. The sense of fear was still in his eyes, but he seemed much more stable and determined than before. He also wasn't shaking anymore; it was as if seeing Donovan in visible danger had brought Lucas back to his senses. "Shinx took the brunt of the attack, then he used Charge to absorb the rest of the Zap Cannon into itself."

"What the?" Donovan said gaping, "That much energy could've caused Shinx to explode!"

"He grounded himself with his tail, dissipating all the electrical energy into the ground."

Mars looked down at the floor and sputtered, "This floor could have been made with conducting metal and could have killed us all for all you know! How would you know that the floor was made with indestructible insulation?"

"I didn't," Lucas said plainly, "but that Hyper Beam attack didn't even make a dent to the walls and nothing happened when you started shooting Thunder Wave everywhere, I figured the entire place was made of it and I took a chance." Mars suddenly flashed back to when her Purugly used that attack. It was true; the wall was undamaged despite a heavy Pokemon crashing into it with its rock-like back and nothing happened during her shocking spree. How could this kid catch on to these things in the heat of battle?

"Well now," Donovan grinned at Lucas and got up, relieved of the situation. "You're lot smarter than you look! Thanks for saving my life!"

"You're welcome," Lucas said politely, but his eyes shown when Donovan began to ruffle his hair in good spirit. They both flashed a smile at each other, knowing that they could now work as a team.

"Save your victory party for later!" Mars snapped. "That might have worked once, but it won't work this time! Magnezone, crush them with a couple of Magnet Bombs!"

"Wait, what?" Donovan turned to see many electrically charged sphere form and shoot out of Magnezone's magnetic arms. "AHHH! Get them away! Get them away! Get them away! Get them away!" Donovan screamed as they continued to run back and forth. It was futile, unfortunately, because the attacks kept honing in on their movement.

"Hahahaha!" Mars laughed, finding great joy in the scene before her. She was ecstatic when her enemies were suffering in front of her. "This is more amusing than that TV show with the Rattata being chased by that Glameow."

"That's Tim and Larry!" Donovan quipped back to her while running with Lucas away from the magnetic explosives.

"Hahaha! Yeah, that's the one~"

"Shinx!" The little lion screeched as it sent out blue electricity, destroying some of the Magnet bombs that targeted Lucas. Shinx puffed its chest out proudly.

"Nice going, little dude!" Donovan grinned as he took out his Poke ball. "Come out Flame Wing!" A red lizard Pokemon with a burning flame at the tip of its tail came out; it held up its deadly claws and hissed. He looked at the scene in front of him: his trainer was grinning like a moron, running around with a child away from floating metal balls while a red-haired woman was laughing in the background.

"Let's finish this!" Donovan's Charmeleon gave his trainer a dry look for his upbeat attitude towards the situation. He was annoyed by his behavior, to be frank. "Use Flamethrower on that Magnet Bomb attack!" Ordinarily, Charmeleon would just scoff at him and take a nap, but the magnet bombs Donovan was referring to were coming straight at the lizard. Without much of a choice in the matter, the lizard blasted out a powerful fire attack, incinerating all of the bombs in the air; Donovan was pleased with the outcome.

"All right. Guile use Curse!" The spectral Pokemon closed its eyes and gave a mad grin; a spectral nail appeared over the back of its head. It let out a supernatural howl of pain as he mimed a pounding movement with his disembodied hands, the nail going deeper into his head. When the nail dissipated into its gaseous skull, the Haunter began looking ragged with exhaustion, even after eating the Oran berry it had held onto. "Hang in there, Guile!"

"What good was that attack?" Mars scoffed after seeing that nothing in particular had happened. She covered her ears and ordered her next offense, "Magnezone, blast them with a Supersonic!" The Pokemon's magnet arms began vibrating violently and a piercing sound wave emanated from them, filling the room with a grating noise.

"Uggghhhhh, is the room spinning or is it just me?" Donovan dizzily said as he swayed around with swirls in his eyes. Lucas was spinning around, dazed as he fell to the ground. Somehow, only the two trainers were affected by the attack and their Pokemon weren't.

"Well, not the result I was hoping for, but works for me," Mars shrugged, "Magnezone, use Lock-On on those boys and end them with a Zap Cannon!" the Pokemon steadied its sights on the trainers and shot a crosshair in their direction, ensuring that it wouldn't miss. Magnezone then sent out the same powerful bolts of electricity as before. Immediately, Donovan's Haunter and Charmeleon and Lucas' Shinx burst forward to block the attack with their own; Guile sent out a Night Shade, Flame Wing breathed out a Flamethrower, and Shinx tried to use Charge again, but it wasn't enough and the power of the Zap Cannon was overwhelming them. The ghost Pokemon was too weak from its Curse attack couldn't hold on and crashed to the ground when the attack finally made contact with it. Charmeleon's attack was still going strong, but Shinx was almost overpowered after absorbing more electricity, and Mars saw its struggle.

"Well now," Mars laughed at the Shinx, "If that pesky ghost hadn't weakened itself earlier, you would've been the weakest link of the chain." Being called weak seemed to have caused Shinx to become even madder as the word stabbed its ego. It was NOT weak.

"SHIIIIIIIINXX!" the Pokemon roared and suddenly started glowing in a brilliant flash of white energy.

"W-what the-?" Mars gaped.

"Urgh… Shinx?" Lucas groaned, he pushed himself from his stupor and saw the little Pokemon slowly growing bigger.

The transformation also began absorbing the rest of the electricity coursing through it, taking the energy as its own. The light started died down, only for a roar to burst through the room. The Pokemon now had a black mane around its head, with black fur covering its blue body. Its front legs had two yellow rings around each of them; its tail grew long, a shuriken star shaped clump of yellow fur on the end of it.

"Shinx! You evolved!" Lucas exclaimed. While he was excited, he wished he had his Pokedex so he knew what Shinx evolved into. It looked at Flame Wing for a moment and they both nodded, knowing what to do next.

"Booyah!" Donovan grinned as he got up and pumped his fist into the air. He just managed to get out of spinney, dizzy wacko land. "Looks like Shinx evolved into a Luxio!"

"Oh! Is that's its new name?" Lucas said brightly and grinned goofily at Luxio, who came over to its trainer. Lucas reached his hand out to pet and…

Chomp!

"Owww," Lucas whimpered. Although it slowly dawned on him that Luxio's bite wasn't as strong as before. In fact, the Spark Pokemon unclasped its jaw quickly and licked Lucas' hand with its pink tongue. "Oh…" Lucas thought it was weird that Shinx… er, Luxio was suddenly acting nice.

"This is not over!" Mars roared, they were ignoring her again and that was all she could stand.

"Oh, on the contrary, lady. It's over," Donovan said. Mars opened her mouth to speak but Donovan's arm suddenly shot up into the air and he snapped his fingers. "BAM!"

She heard a groaning creaking noise and turned around to see her Magnezone fall to the ground, fainted. She shifted her gaze at Donovan in utter shock, the boy in question was grinning gleefully at what happened.

"Oh man! I almost never get the timing right for that!"

"You… you… What did you DO!"

"You see," Donovan began speaking to Mar's enraged face as he walked to his downed Haunter. "Guile's Curse attack may have taken a lot out of him, but it put a curse on your Magnezone, sapping its energy away with every passing moment."

Donovan took out his Pokeball and returned the ghost back into it before looking at Mars with a satisfied expression.

"You wasted too much time on those big attacks that needed time to prepare. You probably didn't even notice, that Magnezone could win a poker tournament with the face it has! You can try and fight again, but I can tell that both Purugly and Magnezone were your strongest Pokemon. Meanwhile, I still have two more I haven't even used yet." Mars glared at Donovan with intense aggravation, but he merely looked back undeterred, tapping his trainer belt in smug satisfaction.

"Ooooh, it's over alright."

…

A surprisingly strong force suddenly hit from behind Saturn. He almost crashed onto his target but she maneuvered away from him and ran toward Maylene and her Pokemon. "What? Who?" Saturn sputtered, losing his usual cool. He noticed that there was a small cute bunny right in front of him, hopping back and forth with an angry expression.

Pow! The Buneary shot up and smacked Saturn right in the eye, knocking his head back. The little bunny landed gracefully away from him, giggling and twirling around like a ballerina.

He took a hand to his eye in seething anger at the little rat that was making a fool of him, but he suddenly realized something was amiss and looked around; the toxic sludge had been frozen, and fumes were no longer seeping out of them. Saturn stared on in disbelief, even Toxicroak was frozen feet down to the ground, stuck in place.

"I'm not done yet!" Dawn coughed out. "Prinplup, take down Toxicroak!" The penguin glided through the ice easily and with strong force, caused Toxicroak to get hit and fell to the ground. "Peck!" Prinplup's beak glowed white and grew until it was a rather long sharp beak. The supper effective flying type attack stabbed the poison Pokemon, causing it to croak in pain. "Not so tough anymore, are you!"

Dawn was relieved; before Saturn came towards her, she managed to push Buneary's Poke ball out and roll it to Maylene for her to release. The purple fumes were too thick for the mysterious blue hair guy to notice this action while he was putting on his mask. The little bunny Pokemon managed to use its Ice Beam attack to freeze everything. Maylene and her Pokemon were slowly coming to, so they should be okay.

"Oh, yes. I sorely agree!" Saturn seethed. He was furious now. "This should've been over minutes ago! Toxicroak, take Revenge on these hideous lowlifes!" The toad grinned madly and punched Prinplup with both its long arms, exerting enough force to knock the bird backwards.

"Prinplup!"

"The more damage you do to my Pokemon, the more damage I do to you! Toxicroak, finish that bunny off."

"Buneary!" Dawn called out. The little bunny immediately jumped in front of Toxicroak and glared up, determined to finally kick some butt. The Toxicroak merely croaked out a laugh as it took a swipe at the Pokemon, but Buneary's speed allowed it to dodge every hit. While Buneary was 'playing' with the Toxicroak, Dawn helped Maylene up; the gym leader's Pokemon were getting up as well. Dawn took out of her bag some Pecha berries that she kept from the Pokemon Contest earlier. She handed them over to Maylene's Pokemon so that they could heal from their poison status.

"You okay?" Dawn said to Maylene, who was groggily regaining consciousness.

"Urgh, yeah, that poison thing took a bit of a toll on me," Maylene muttered. She shook her head and slowly stood up by herself.

"Meww!" Dawn snapped back to the scene and saw that Toxicroak finally pinned down Buneary.

"Buneary!" Dawn cried out.

"Okay, change in plans. Riolu, we're going to think this out." Riolu nodded to Maylene and slowly stepped forward.

"You mean like… a negotiation?" Dawn asked, not understanding Maylene's words.

"You can call it that if you want. I'll just call it fighting with the mind." Immediately Riolu charged forward and jumped in between Buneary and Toxicroak. Immediately, Riolu's palm glowed a bright blue and forced it into the Toxicroak's stomach, causing it to fall back. Then as though reading a signal from its mind, Riolu spawned multiple blue spheres, shooting them repeatedly at the large poison Pokemon while never missing a beat. Every time Toxicroak tried to retaliate and puff out its poisonous sludge like before, Riolu would gracefully dodge them, as though it knew what was going to happen.

"H-how are you doing that?" Dawn asked Maylene, who was intensely focused at the battle with her Riolu.

"I can communicate with my Pokemon with my aura," Maylene muttered, not leaving her eyes off her Riolu, "though it is not as great as Riley's…" Dawn was about to ask who was Riley when she noticed a flash of…

"Look out!" Dawn quickly pulled Maylene to the ground just in time before the laser hit them.

"You will do as I say or be prepared for annihilation!" Saturn ordered, aiming his weapon toward the two girls.

"Ugh, not in the move for this!" Dawn spoke back, sick and tired of this battle; why the heck did he have a ray gun, this isn't a sci-fi series. She ran straight at him, surprising Saturn just long enough for Dawn to lunge in front of him. Using her hands as support, she kicked Saturn's gun out of his hand. Dawn grabbed it and threw it to Buneary. "Smash that thing!" Buneary didn't need to be told twice. It jumped high into the air and came crashing down on it, causing it smash into pieces.

"And father said martial arts practice was pointless," Dawn scoffed as she cracked her fists, ready for action.

"You're good," Maylene said, appearing next to Dawn. Her Meditite showed up next to Buneary.

"Well, I do practice a lot," Dawn smiled. They both turned to face Saturn. He took a step back in response.

_This shouldn't happen! Why wasn't everything going as plan!_

"Time to finish you off!" Both of the girls said with their fists out in a martial art form.

…

An old, stout man was watching three separate screens with amusement as he leaned against his rolling chair. He had never though that watching the three top commanders battling low-level trainers could be so amusing. All of them were struggling quite a bit in their battles, even though they were "elites". He couldn't help but chuckle at the sight.

"Charon, what are you doing?" The man looked over his shoulder and saw that it was the commander. The man's eyes had bags under it as though he haven't slept much and his cheeks looked hollow as though he haven't been eating much for the past few days.

"Ah there you are," Charon grinned. His beady eyes couldn't see the face of the looming shadow over him but knew who it was. "Had a nice lunch with the chairman from the Pokemon Committee?"

"Spare me your sarcasm. The police have a search warrant to check the factory and I'm not in the mood for it," the man stated as he narrowed his eyes at the screens. He fell silent for a moment before speaking. "What in the world are my commanders doing?"

"Seems to me that they're wasting their time battling children," Charon said in a mocking voice. The man glared down at Charon who decided to keep his mouth shut again though he couldn't help snickering.

"Get me in contact with them," the man said as he reached for a headset.

"What? Hey, where are you going?"

"Getting things back in order."

…

"Saturn! Mars! Jupiter! The commander is back!" A singsong voice said. Saturn flinched in shock as he listened into the earpiece. It's Charon! "I'll let you guys talk to him."

"C-commander? Commander is back?" Dawn and Maylene looked at each other with surprise. What was going on?

"Despicable, letting your emotions get in the way of your judgment," a chilling voice filled Saturn's ear. "I placed Saturn in charge and you all decided to take a day off to play games?" Saturn could feel his ears burning with shame.

"Sir!" Mars said, interrupting, "We weren't playing! We were-!"

"Silence Mars," the voice on her earpiece said in an icy and chilling voice, "I don't want to hear it from the one who caused that fire in the factory and that riot. Now there are police who are coming in with a search warrant." Mars flinched in fear.

Donovan and Lucas looked at each other. Who was this lady talking to? A ghost? It was a ghost wasn't it? They're evil ghosts from space aren't they? Oh man, these crazy evil people were in cahoots with space ghosts, Donovan made a special note to ask his Haunter about this later.

"Are you serious?" Jupiter asked through the communication. "I was about to beat these peasants."

"Who is she talking to?" Damion whispered to Terra but the guy didn't respond. He narrowed his eyes at Jupiter, hoping to pick up a clue.

"All of you report back here and destroy the evidence," Cyrus growled as he watched the screen of his shocked subordinates. Disgusting, he thought. Letting their emotions show on their faces even now. Back in his mind he noticed that some of the people on the screen look familiar to him, but that wasn't his main priority now. "The Sinnoh Champion is here and I'm pretty sure you, Jupiter, would not want to see her now. Unless, of course, you want to ruin our plan _again_." Cyrus could see the woman flinched and growled on the screen. The other two commanders murmured a word of understanding. Good, they were finally acting like leaders now.

"Tangrowth! Return!" Jupiter took out the Pokeball and recalled the sentient mass of vines.

"What?" Damion looked shock. "You're just giving up?"

"Tch," Jupiter said as though the word 'giving up' annoyed her, "Who said anything about giving up? I'm going to let you guys go because I have more important situations to deal with. Consider it a moment of mercy" Jupiter looked at the Pokedex that was still in her hand and carelessly tossed it to Damion who had to jump to the ground in order to reach it before it hit the ground. "And consider that as an apology gift. But remember boys," Jupiter stared down at the two trainers who merely glared back, "you didn't win this round because you were strong. You won because to luck. _Only_ luck." She pressed a panel on the wall behind her and steam suddenly burst out through some vents and filled the entire room. Terra lurched forward at Jupiter, but by the time the steam disappeared; she was long gone.

"Goodbye boys," Mars said to Donovan and Lucas, forgetting her anger a moment ago. "It's been a blaaaaaaast." With a wink, she punched the wall behind her and a bellow of steam filled the room. Donovan and Lucas lost track of what was going on, as the mist seemed to eat up their vision.

"Hmph, I seemed to have underestimated you girls. I'll make sure not to confront you underprepared next time." He said simply, taking out three small orbs from his pockets. He glared at Dawn for a long moment. He failed in the kidnapping but the plan can still be saved. "Goodbye, ladies."

"Wait!" Maylene said, rushing forward to punch the man but he threw down his orbs, causing a sudden smokescreen to burst forth. The smog clouded Maylene's sight, and she lost her target. "Darn! He's getting away!"

"DAMN IT!" Terra growled in anger, pounding the ground with his fist.

"Terra?" Terra looked around and to his surprise, he noticed that the walls that had blocked them from the others were suddenly gone, almost like magic. Terra saw Donovan rushing toward him. "You're all right! Huzzah!" Donovan leapt at Terra for a hug, but the guy merely sidestepped, causing Donovan to miss and roll to the ground.

"Owww… strike," Donovan whimpered.

"What's going on?" Lucas asked groggily through the smoke as it slowly disappeared.

"Lucas! Damion!" Dawn rushed forward and behind her was Maylene.

"Maylene! Are you okay?" Terra said, rushing forward toward her. Donovan quickly came as well.

"Yes," Maylene muttered. "But the guy who captured us got away."

"Same here," Donovan said, "Except we had a woman. Still, wondered what they want…"

"Hey, your Shinx evolved," Dawn said excitedly, patting the Pokemon on the head. It puffed out its chest proudly.

"Damion," Lucas said, walking over, "Is everything okay?" The guy had been silent the whole time. Damion didn't respond and simply pushed Lucas' Pokedex back into the guy's hand. "Damion?"

"Damn it!" Damion suddenly yelled angrily as he kneeled to the ground, pounding it with his fists.

"Damion!" Dawn said, sounding a bit shock at the frustration written all over his face.

"Stop it," Terra said sharply. "There is no need to act out like that."

"We were hopeless and we wouldn't have survived if she didn't decide to quit all of a sudden!"

"Damion, what are you talking about?" Dawn asked but Terra knew why Damion was mad. And he knew that woman was right. They didn't win… they didn't win at all.

…

The mysterious man in the trench coat entered the building through the door, or at least, where the door should've been. Such a shame, doors don't get the respect they deserve these days. As he walked in carefully, he noticed to his surprise several people and a couple of them were familiar faces. Without needing to hide anymore, he walked forward.

"Excuse me, are you the Veilstone gym leader Maylene?" The pink hair girl turned in surprise.

"Y-yes, who are you?" Damion, Lucas, and Dawn looked up in surprise at the familiar face.

"L-Looker!" Damion shouted. The man still looked serious, but was glad he was remembered.

"For reasons of national security, my codename is Looker," the man said taking out his badge. "And I would like all of you to come with me before the police come. I need all the information I can get."

**Author's Notes**

Congratulations, you have finished this chapter without dying! :D

Okay, now the news.

First off, for those who are reading BW story, I have a poll up. Please vote for it is important.

And second, I've decided to remove the hiatus off of Shadows Within Fiore! Woo! However, DP Reverse Time will be put on hold. But partly because I want to focus more on DPTT story before I write Reverse Time.

Say, anybody interested in the new Batman game out (Arkham City I think?). The graphics are so awesome. Wished I could play it.

Also, anybody a fan of Kingdom Hearts? The 3-D game looks so good and of course, Neku (from the World Ends with You) is in there as well! So excited. XP

Oh yes, for those who didn't know, I decided to get the Professor Layton game for my b-day. Pretty good and I really enjoy puzzles.

Now let's thanks my reviewers before I go.

…

**Ketchum Kid**

**Phanter black**

**SagaAuraMana**

**ZXCVBNMEM**

**Assassin42**

**KoreanoWaltz**

**Meta-Akira**

**Light-Sakura**

**Jarkes**

**HikariKotoneLyrics**

**JayCee247**

**Dreadly Rise**

**blackrockx**

**N the puppet**

**Solyeuse** (lol. This update is way too late. XP Actually, Mars was referring to when she met Lucas last time at the Valley Windworks area. Anyways, thanks for the review.)

**Oathbear**

**ThunderRiver411**

…

Thanks guys and I'll see you in the next chapter which will probably take a while as well to be updated. Sigh…

Remember to vote in my poll!

**-JapanDreamer**


	73. Getting Arrested Isn't that Bad, Right?

**Disclaimer: If only…**

Whoo! I did it! I've managed to update this story AND finish this arc! (Dancing around now)

Had a very good holiday and very great New Year as well. I hope everybody else did too.

Oh yes and thank you **SinCityAssassi**n for editing thirteen pages of pure torture so readers can enjoy. Guess that's my holiday gift to you. Lol. Jkjk.

Not too much to add to that but check out my **Author Notes** later.

Enjoy the chapter!

**Chapter 70:**

There were several policemen patrolling the Galactic Headquarters building until the administrative authorities had shown up with the correct paperwork. Police cars were everywhere in the parking lot along with a few ambulances loitering around as Looker insisted the paramedics check everybody before being interviewed, Maylene and Dawn especially, as they were in immediate contact with dangerous toxins.

Terra and Donovan (both of who were much more familiar with the law enforcement) were taking charge with the police report, explaining the recent events to the officers. Maylene had gotten an important call and had to leave as well, though she did promise Damion a proper gym battle as an apology for everything that had happened.

Sitting on the curb of the parking lot, Dawn, Lucas, and Damion stared at the red and blue lights flashing against the walls. The three were trying to calm themselves down enough to process everything that had happened to them. Being separated and forced to do battle in a life-or-death situation was the sort of thing that would make a trainer reflective. After being interrogated for what felt like hours, the three were now waiting for the secret agent Looker, who had taken Damion's Vs. Recorder to look for evidence, and the fact that he told them to wait there as he took a call, though he's been on the phone for quite a while…

"How long is this going to take?" Damion grumbled as he tapped his foot against the concrete pavement, "He said it was going to be a short phone call."

Although he did his best to act calm and cool, Damion was still feeling the burning shame for losing such an important battle, even with his two to one advantage. He was supposed to be the strongman of the group – he's the one actually challenging the gym leaders. Both Lucas and Dawn admitted that they had a lot of trouble with their battles, but they still managed to gain the upper hand, so why didn't he? Damion felt his hands tightened into fists. He could feel his fingernail digging into the palm of his hand. Why was he so weak?

"Must be someone important," Dawn said, shrugging her shoulders, not really taking any notice to Damion's mood. She was too busy in her own thoughts; she was just confused by all this. That blue hair man… why did he go after her, instead of Maylene, when they were succumbing from the poison? For some reason Dawn had a feeling that the man specifically targeting her… but why? Was he trying to kidnap her? Did they know about her status? No, that can't be. No one else on their journey seemed to know about her family except for Damion, Lucas and her family's employees. Dawn began to have a very uneasy feeling as she recalled Lucas' words back in Eterna City.

"_There's something bad that is going to happen! I think that's why I came. To give you a warning!"_

Up until now, she didn't know how to take Lucas' warning, and now it made her stomach flip in fear. Could Lucas have been telling the truth about a disaster waiting to happen? Dawn didn't want to believe it, but after this crazy incident, she couldn't look away from the possibility anymore. She took a quick look at Lucas and saw that he was also deep in his own thoughts, looking much wittier than she was used to seeing.

Lucas' head was filled devoid of anything but worry, which was saying a lot since his head was usually filled with nothing but food. Time was running out… yet what was he doing? He was so confused. He doesn't have a map telling him the best path to take or a guidebook telling him what to do. He was on his own. In fact, he didn't even know exactly what he was supposed to achieve to begin with. Lucas stared at the Pokedex that was in his hand; he had caused so much trouble because of his carelessness… How in the world was he going to save the world if he was going to let the enemy get to him each time?

"All right." The three kids looked up and saw Looker standing over them. He had the Vs. Recorder in his hand, which he threw onto Damion's lap. "Sorry for taking so long, but things were getting hectic here." After a short pause, Looker continued as the kids didn't seem to be in a talking mood, "You guys were pretty amazing, holding on your own in battle against elites like that… Takes a strong trainer to manage it!" There was no response though Dawn did give a forced grin.

"What's the matter with you three?" Looker asked, looking confused. "You guys were really lucky to make it out of that one." Okay, bad choice of words.

Damion immediately got up and muttered, "I'm going to find Maylene," Looker watched on, bewildered as the moody boy stormed out of the parking lot.

"Was it something I said?" Looker was confused and Dawn didn't really have the heart to tell him why.

"Mr. Looker," Dawn said, staring at the secret agent. "I have a question for you." Looker looked baffled at Dawn's sudden statement as the girl continued. "Why did those people attack us? We dealt with the same thing Floaroma Town as well. Is there something going on that we should know?" There was a short silence before…

"Ahem," Looker coughed, "That's top class secret information I can't give." He said this while being wary of his surroundings.

"What?" Dawn exclaimed and got up so quickly that Looker almost flinched in surprise, "I've held back asking this question last time we met since I thought it was something that could've been dealt with easily but now, looking at it… I don't think those people, whoever they are, are done just yet. And I want to know what they're planning. This is something a lot bigger than you're making out to be." She said this firmly with a fiery determined look on her face.

"Sorry Miss Dawn," Looker said firmly without wavering, "I can't tell you. I wish you three weren't mixed in this mess, but this type of situation should be left with the adults." Before Dawn could speak another word, a policeman walked up and whispered something into Looker's ear.

"Understood," Looker muttered back. "Tell the other men to get ready." Looker then turned back to Dawn and said, "You three are free to go now. Again, I apologize for what has happened but there is nothing you guys can do." Dawn wanted to object some more but something told her that it would lead the nowhere. Looker had already left, leaving Dawn and Lucas by themselves again.

Dawn groaned in frustration. Now what? She turned to see that Lucas had not heard a word Looker told them, he was too focused into trying to process another thought process entirely.

"Lucas," Dawn finally said, "Let's go back to the hotel and grab our stuff."

"Huh?" Lucas blurted, snapping out of his trance. He noticed that Dawn was ahead of him as she grabbed her bag and walked off. "Oh! Wait for me!" With a small stumble, he hurried after her.

"W-what about Damion?" Lucas asked, realizing they were short of one moody blond. "Where is he? Shouldn't we wait for him first?"

"Don't worry," Dawn replied. "I'm just going to get our stuff and we'll meet up with him later."

"Huh? Wait? What will we do after going to the hotel?"

"The library," Dawn said firmly. "It's time I started looking into this situation as well."

…

Donovan waited for Terra to finish up the witness interview conducted by the police. After a few minutes, Terra joined Donovan's side as they began walking away from the crime scene.

"What's the status?" Donovan asked Terra, but he remained silent. "Come on, you can't tell me that this has nothing to do with me anymore." Terra merely shrugged and continued to walk while Donovan tagged along.

"Let's head back to the gym now. I need to get back to my duties. Actually, now that I think about it, we should heal our Pokémon, so let's do that first." Donovan could tell that Terra was trying to change the subject.

"Terra, come on. You know I can be more annoying with my prodding. I hate being kept in the dark for so long. I warn you, I'm gonna do it, I'm cupping my hands!"

Terra groaned as he tried really hard not to sound irritated, he looked at his friend, who was in the process of releasing a mound of questions. "Look Donovan, I can't say anything because I don't know much about it either."

"Huh?" Donovan looked confused now. "What? Then what's with the big secrecy earlier?"

"Maylene only told us that there was something dangerous about this company and we needed to keep a look out. That's all. I figure it was serious enough to keep quiet as much as possible. I don't ask more questions than I need to."

"Something dangerous," Donovan said slowly as he glanced up at the tall building. Though Donovan and Terra both told the police about their life-or-death situation in the warehouse, the officers said that despite the witness account, there was no evidence that pointed to Galactic Enterprise employees as the culprits, despite it being in their own Warehouse.

When they checked the scene where the battle took place, there were no switches, not segmented walls, no escape routes, nothing out of the ordinary besides burn marks and battle scars. Even with Looker's testimony about what he saw of the aftermath, they couldn't do anything; they don't have a warrant to dismantle the solid walls like that. As far as it looked, it was just the inside of a warehouse building, used for an unauthorized indoor battle. Even if they did, it would take too long for an investigation. Donovan and Terra both knew this was a cover up though. This company hiding something very sinister, but what was it?

"Maybe… I should stick around then, see how all this pans out for myself," Donovan said this slowly and thoughtfully. Terra lightly whacked him on the head, earning him an annoyed glare.

"Don't be stupid! It was your dream to travel around the world. You can't just give that up because of this. Maylene probably wouldn't even let you," Terra snapped, "You see, _that's_ the reason why she didn't want to tell you anything; she knew you'd drop everything just to make sure we're alright."

"Yeah, well… I'm still worried about her," Donovan said, shrugging his shoulders before quickly adding, "and you too, of course."

"Oh wow, I feel so appreciated."

"It's just that I don't think this is something that should only be shouldered by her, this is happening in OUR city after all."

"She has us, the team. Don't worry about it," Terra stated flatly. "We're a lot tougher than you think."

"Maybe, but if you haven't noticed, those people we fought against, they weren't a bunch of average trainers. All three of them fought competently when they were all outnumbered. If that's just what a few of their higher ups could do with what they had on hand, think about what an entire corporation could do to us, we'd have been wiped out. You've been in a lot of battles too; you of all people should know that." Terra was silent. The memory of battling against that purple haired woman was still painfully fresh in his mind. He clenched his hands thinking about it, it was one of those defeats he regretted.

"I know I'm not that great of a fighter," Donovan continued on, "But I'd rather hold off on my traveling and stay here helping out instead of just regretting it later in the middle of another region. It's the right thing to do and… Terra, are you listening?"

"Just go talk to Maylene about it then," Terra finally said as he sighed aloud. "I'm sure she'll argue but won't force you to leave."

"Ha ha, actually, she might even kick me out of the city… literally," Donovan grinned sheepishly. "But you're gonna back me up, right best buddy? Guy-friend? Palhoncho?"

"Sorry man, no can do. You're on your own there," Terra smirked for a second at Donovan's grimaced face.

"Some friend you are…"

"Now come on, we need to get our Pokémon to the Pokémon Center."

"Hold on a minute," Donovan said, looking around as though he realized he had forgotten something. "Where are those three, you know, Lucas, Dawn, and that Damion guy?" Terra stopped to look around as well, they were nowhere in sight.

"Huh, that's weird; I would've thought they'd still be here."

"Maybe they finished being interviewed," Donovan shrugged his shoulders. "They should be at the Pokemon Center, so let's go there!"

"That's what I said to do earlier," Terra muttered, but Donovan was already dragging him towards their destination.

…

"Okay, where to now?" Tory asked out loud as he reached a crossroad in the sewers. His voice echoed deep into the dark sewer tunnel. As far as they were concerned, they got into the underground sewers unnoticed, so far so good. Well, as good as it as is that no one else found them trespassing.

It was incredibly disgusting down where they were; this section of the sewers hasn't been used for a long time so all the waste had just… accumulated over time. Dripping echoed through the tunnels as the ceiling constantly leaked water. "Leander," Tory turned his head to look behind him when he didn't get a respond and repeated his question, "Where to now?"

"T-to the right," Leander grimaced from behind as he tried not to think about what he was actually stepping in. He was wearing goggles, a gauze mask, a pair of gloves, his hair net, rubber boots, waterproof coat with matching pants, and everything else that could prevent his body from actually coming in contact by this place.

Tory remembered clearly how Leander was insistent that they bought things to prepare for the trip. While Tory thought this was a good idea and bought gloves, a pair of boots, and a headlamp, he flinched at the sight of Leander's merchandises. The guy had taken paranoid to a whole new level. How they managed to get this far, without anyone noticing, was a feat that Tory would never figure out.

"You know you look ridiculous," Tory said flatly. Friend or not, Tory couldn't let anyone walk around like that and expect to look 'good'. "Like some overgrown and badly dressed snowman. Why don't you take some stuff off? I don't think you need the earmuffs at the very least."

"HEY! People have died because they neglected to protect their bodies from foreign contaminants! I refuse to have this stuff getting on me!" Leander would've been spraying out spittle if it weren't for the mask. "You know airborne bacteria down here can give you a nasty rash inside your ears? No? Well, they can! It's all burning and gross and just an unpleasant experience!"

"Okay, okay," Tory muttered and turned forward. The light wasn't bright enough to see more than three feet away, but Tory didn't mind too much. There was a sudden squeaking noise that broke the quiet atmosphere. This didn't bother Tory, but the noise was soon followed by a-

"EEEK!" Leader freaked out and lunged at Tory for protection, frantically looking everywhere around him, afraid to see a sudden monster or the like. "What was that! **What was that!**"

"Just some rodent… probably a Rattata," Tory said in a calm voice but there was an annoyed look on his face. "Will you please calm down, pry your nails off my face, and get off of me?"

"S-sorry," Leander said, turning red in embarrassment at his action; he seemed to be even jumpier than before and flinched ever so often now. "I just hate being in such a dark, filthy place."

"…Sorry," Tory muttered as he continued to slush his way forward.

"Oh t-that's not what I mean!" Leander replied when he realized the insensitivity of his words, "It's just that… I'm a, well, a real… neat freak!"

"Really? I didn't notice," Tory said, glancing again at Leander's outfit. They both continued down the sewer line. None of them really said much though Leander muttered once in a while at the sight of something disgusting, with the occasional squeal when the slime from the ceilings dripped down in front of him. The only times they had an actual conversation was when they would hit a crossroad or a dead end and Tory needed Leander to point to the right path. It felt like they been down here for hours when finally made it to the supposed location.

"There we are!" Leander exclaimed finally, pointing at the rusty metal ladder in front of them. Tory looked up and noticed the manhole cover.

"Are you sure?" Tory asked with doubt evident in his voice.

"Umm," Leander thought for a bit as he retraced the route and the map inside his head. "Yes, yes this should be the manhole that leads to the building. It should get you past all the security outside the gates. Getting into the building, however, is a different story."

"Okay, cool, thanks for your help. I'll repay you someday; you've already jotted down my contact information." With that, Tory started to climb up the rungs of the ladder. "You don't have to worry about me anymore."

"Wait, hold on!" Leander exclaimed, "Are you just going in alone? You can't be serious!"

"Of course," Tory said firmly. "You've been a good guy, but it is best if you leave now and not get involved anymore in this. It was nice meeting you, Leander." Tory continued to climb back up the ladder.

"Are you daft, man?" Leander exclaimed, grabbing onto the ladder as well, following him. "I'm not going to run away like a coward after coming this far!" Tory blinked in surprise as Leander looked back with a determined voice. "As cheesy as this sound, we're in this together so we'll stick together."

"Th-thanks," Tory stammered and Leander grinned in reply.

"No problem. Now, come on," Leander exclaimed, excited now. "This place reeks and I and I never want to think about what things I've stepped in leading you here."

"Well I'm guessing it was-"

"Never think about it again." With a great amount of effort, Tory removed the metal manhole and quickly got out into the fresh air.

"Phew!" Leander sighed as Tory pulled him out and took a deep breath. "I will never smell fresh air as sweet as this ever again, I'm so glad that's over with." Unfortunately, it wasn't.

**"FREEZE!"** A voice cried out which was followed by the sound of many clicking.

"GAH!" Leander screamed as he saw squad forced pop out of the bushes.

Policemen surrounded the area patiently they had been expecting this. They had on bulletproof vests and shielded helmets, the emblem of the Veilstone Police Department showing everywhere on their equipment. Leander was more focused on the guns in their hands that were pointing directly to Tory's and Leander's head however. "Put your hands into the air and come out of the manhole, don't try anything funny now," the turquoise haired woman, the chief of police, yelled through a megaphone. Tory flinched in fear. How could this happen? Were they being tracked this whole time?

"Now, clearly this is a misunderstanding, we'll be going now, sorry about that." Leader said shakily as he attempted to go back into the sewers, only for Tory to grasp very tightly onto his sleeve.

"N-no running away like a coward now…" Tory said through his clenched teeth.

"Maybe I should've stayed back in the sewers," Leander muttered as he silently cried while raising his hands high into the air. "Good bye sweet world."

"This isn't over!" Tory hissed at Leander, though truthfully, he had no idea what to do either. A black hair man in a dusty trench coat came out from the line of policemen and calmly walked toward the two boys without hesitation.

"Sir! Wait!" But the man didn't seem to hear and Tory watched suspiciously until the man kneeled down front of them. Leander, on the other hand, was shaking with fear.

"Hello," the man said, "My name is Looker." He opened his trench coat and revealed his ID. "I'm an agent of the International Police." Tory managed to get a look at the ID before the man named Looker placed it back into his coat pocket. He crossed his arms across this chest, staring disapprovingly at the two, like a teacher ready to reprimand his students. "It seems the two of you will need to have a talk to me."

…

"Nothing… Nothing… Nothing!" Dawn muttered angrily as she shut another book in annoyance, "Absolutely nothing!"

"What?" Lucas whispered back as he peeked over the top of his book– Poffins: The Cooking Theory. Lucas and Dawn were sitting in one of the large reading tables dotted around the library. The table was covered in books, newspaper articles, and a computer loaned by the library. Dawn has been looking for information on the Galactic gang for the last hour and a half. The only thing on the table that wasn't a book was Dawn's incubated egg container.

"I've been trying to find some books on Galactic Enterprises, but nothing. All I've learned from these books is that the company was founded more than ten years ago on the basis of space age research and technologies."

"So… nothing helpful right?"

"If you mean helpful in our situation, no they weren't," Dawn muttered as she scanned through the library's news database. "They've made a lot of money patenting their technology, no successful claims against their motives and recent scandals. As far as I see, they really haven't done _anything_ amiss on record. Of course, there could be something that I overlooked…"

"But their spiked building… and their trapping systems…"

"I don't think there would be information on giant walls of doom used to separate people inside a room. I wouldn't be surprise if they made it though, they have the resources." Dawn stared all of the sources in front of here, now proven useless in her search for information. "We've hit a dead end," She sighed in frustration.

"Oh," Lucas fell quiet and went back to reading his large book. He seemed to have lost interest now, but he continued to take notes on a piece of paper he had.

"What are you reading?" Dawn asked, curious. She never saw Lucas as someone who'd read a book for more than twenty minutes.

"About Poffins," Lucas said happily as he turned another page in the book delicately. "I wanted to make sure my cooking skills become better before your next contest."

"Oh, okay…" Dawn shrugged before looking back to her research. She suddenly realized what Lucas had just said. "Wait…" Dawn spoke slowly this time, "what did you say?"

"Huh? Oh, Poffins," Lucas looked up again and confused. "You know, for the Pokemon Contest that was coming up so I –"

"AHHH!" Dawn exclaimed with the look of horror on her face. She jumped to her feet and causing several books to fall to the floor. Lucas flinched and several people turned to stare though Dawn ignored them. She had completely forgotten about it! "I totally forgot about that! I haven't practiced!"

"W-what? How could you not remember?" Lucas sputtered in amazement. He though he was the one who was the most forgetful of the group.

"Oh I don't know," she said sarcastically as she gathered her things. "Maybe because I was busy getting into a pokemon battle against an insane nutcase of an executive of a space corporation! Why didn't you tell me this sooner?" Before Lucas could even say a word in his defense, Dawn had already raced out of the library. Lucas sighed as he closed the book, struggled out of his chair, and put the book back in place on the shelf before stumbling after Dawn.

…

"Maylene, what were you thinking?" Cynthia demanded. "You could've been killed!" Maylene looked down at her bare feet and refused to raise her head. "I told you to keep an eye on the place, not barge in and start a fight!" Maylene and Cynthia were both at Veilstone gym and though the meeting was unexpected, Maylene's pupils managed to have the room cleaned up.

"I apologize for making you worry Miss Cynthia!" Maylene exclaimed, bowing down in shame. "I was following my subordinates and wasn't aware of the danger of the situation before it was too late." Maylene knew that these were meaningless excuses, but there wasn't much she could say on the matter. The Veilstone gym leader admired Cynthia of her strong battling prowess and viewed her as a role model, a mentor. Maylene was already filled with guilt because she had disappointed her. A long silence filled the air before Cynthia started to speak.

"You're not hurt are you?" her voice was gentle now.

"I'm fine. The paramedics took a few tests on me and decided the gases I inhaled didn't affect my body enough for any advanced treatment. I just need to rest a couple of days though."

"Do that," Cynthia said in a stern tone that Maylene knew she couldn't argue with. "Your health is more important. Please, don't do anything stressful." Malylene sigh a breath of relief.

"Yes ma'am!"

"Cynthia!" the Pokémon champion turned to see a young policeman running toward her. "We've apprehended the person you told us to keep an eye out for."

"Good," Cynthia replied, "Tell the inspector I'll be there shortly."

"Right away miss." Cynthia turned back to Maylene, who was curious at the conversation.

"Maylene, go back to the gym and take a break. I'll take over from here. You need to get ready for the press conference later on."

"P-press conference?" Maylene repeated with a wide shocked look.

"Yeah," Cynthia said grimly, "And trust me, it's not going to be pretty." With that, the Sinnoh Champion was gone. Maylene couldn't help but groan. Great… press conferences… Press conferences required her to wear proper clothes and speak in a dignified manner – so confining. She remembered watching Gardenia on TV when she tried to explain things in Eterna. Although she got the facts straight and refused to answer questions, the poor girl was flustered a lot and seemed to be under a lot of pressure.

"Maylene!" The gym leader saw Damion coming towards her.

"Oh, hello there… um…"

"Damion! I'm here to-"

"Oh! That's right, you want that gym battle," Maylene said, remembering her promise. However, the thought of the upcoming press conference also seemed nerve-racking that she wanted to have time to relax before then. "Look, I can't have the gym battle right now. Could you wait until-?" Without warning, Damion dropped to his knees and looked directly at Maylene. Before she could get over the shock and asked what was going on, Damion vigorously yelled.

"Please! Let me become your pupil!"

"W-what?" Maylene sputtered. "Are you serious?"

"The battle I had earlier proved that I'm not strong enough to be a good trainer," Damion continued, ignoring what Maylene said. "I need the training from a gym leader in order to become stronger. So, please, I beg you—" Damion dropped his head to the ground with a slam– "Allow me to become a student!"

As flattered as Maylene was, she knew she couldn't fulfill Damion's desire for training. The gym leader simply had more pressing issues to deal with, especially since the threats she needed to address were situated in her hometown. Still, Damion had swallowed his pride and begged for her to help him. What could she do? Was there someone else who could take her place? Wait, a minute… now that was an idea. And she knew just the perfect guy.

"Damion, as much as I appreciate your enthusiasm," Maylene said, "I can't-."

"Please! I beg you!" Damion said, interrupting Maylene, repeatedly slamming his head onto the training mat. "This is important to me!"

"Will you stop bashing your head on the floor and let me finish!" Maylene exclaimed. Damion immediately fell silent, a small bruise forming on his forehead. Maylene coughed in embarrassment before continuing.

"I can't take you in… but I do know someone who can. In fact, I consider him to be stronger, and much more skilled than I am."

"What? Where can I meet him? Who is he?" Damion couldn't believe his ears. Was luck on his side now?

"Actually, he lives very close – in Pastoria City." Maylene paused for a moment, waiting for the information to sink in, and added, "Why don't you go over there and meet him yourself?"

…

_One or two days earlier…_

Gym Leader Crasher Wake hummed his theme song as he strolled along Route 222.

_"The ring is my roiling sea._

_The towering waves shaped me._

_**Crash! Crash! Crasher Wake!**_

_**Crash! Crash! Crasher Wake!**_

_I'm the tidal wave of power to wash you away!_

_Put out the fire, Crasher Wake!_

_Run from electricity, Crasher Wake!_

_**Ah, ah, aaaah!**_

_The ring is my sea. "_

Crasher Wake couldn't help but give a small jig as well to the song. It was a bright and sunny day, a perfect complement to the city he was visiting – Sunyshore City. At the request of Pokemon Committee chairman, Crasher Wake was visiting the gym leader there.

'_Course_, Crasher Wake thought grimly, _that guy was almost impossible to handle_.

The gym leader of Sunyshore was also the eighth and final one for trainers to challenge in Sinnoh before taking on the Elite Four at the Pokémon league. But despite the man's well-known status among his colleagues, he was probably the most depressed one of them all.

While others were unsympathetic, Crasher Wake could understand why. There hasn't been a worthy challenge in ages, and the man was feeling very gloomy at the top; Crasher Wake understood that feeling quite well. Back then, he was considered one of the greatest pro wrestlers around, but Crasher Wake fell into a state of melancholy after his title was seen unattainable to those in the wrestling circuit. He soon moved to Sinnoh and became a gym leader though he was still in the pro wrestling league.

Sunyshore's gym leader was in the exact same funk Crasher Wake had been in. The excitement and adrenaline from the battle was gone. Battling trainers wasn't a challenge anymore, and winning lost almost all meaning. Nevertheless, abandoning his duties as gym leader was unacceptable and, for crying out loud, he just caused a freaking power outage in the entire city. Crasher Wake was here to set things straight.

Humming his theme song one more time, the Pastoria's gym leader had finally arrived to Sunyshore City. Although he couldn't see it from where he was standing, Crasher Wake could easily taste the salty air of the sea. Sunyshore City was one of the major port towns of the Sinnoh region; thousands of ships come and go from this spot. Of course, a port city wasn't complete without its own special Vista Lighthouse, located at the rocky cliff face east of town. It usually shined a powerful light across the sea, signaling ships to safety from the rocky coastal rock patches that scattered around at the edge of the city. The lighthouse wasn't on today, however.

The whole place was in full panic. Many people had no electricity and were outside, trying to figure out what was going on. It's amazing how so much noise could be produce by angry people… Of course, while the technicians were assuring the citizens that they were working on it, the main focus was to get the lighthouse back to work before nighttime falls when the ships needed to use the light.

There wasn't a warm greeting, as Crasher Wake would expect when he usually walked into a town. Normally, people here would recognize him immediately and come out to greet him. In fact, he usually had several fans around, always asking for autographs and photos.

"Crasher Wake!" The gym leader turned around at the sound of his name and noticed a young man, around in his late twenties, with the strangest red afro coming toward him. He had on a bright yellow collared shirt along with long black cargo pants. He stopped in front of him and put out his fist. "What are you doing here?"

"Hey there Flint," Crasher Wake replied, accepting the fist bump. "Need to have a chat with 'you-know-who'."

The guy immediately grimaced at the thought. "Good luck talking with him. He's impossible to deal with! I've tried to get through with him for the past few hours but nothing!" Flint was one of the Elite Four and probably has the fieriest passion of them all. He was very friendly and was always grinning.

"Well, he is in his usual funk. I'm sure I can get him straighten out somehow," Crasher Wake said grimly. "Is he at his usual spot?"

"Yep," Flint replied, looking over his shoulder at a particular building in the back. "The city's in total ruckus because of his remodeling and all he did in response was locking himself up inside the gym." Flint then paused for a moment to look around and make sure no one was watching before whispering. "Hey, is it true what I heard about Eterna City?"

"You know about it?" Crasher Wake immediately fell into a serious tone. The Elite Four hadn't been fully addressed the issue since their job was more focused on the Pokémon League. Local problems were usually dealt by the gym leaders from those cities or by the police.

"Well, just rumors mostly," Flint replied back, "I'm worried about the fact that a certain company might be responsible for everything. That was part of the reason why I came here, so I could ask Volkner myself. Of course, _he _had no idea what was going on and seemed totally blasé about it. No surprise there."

"I'll brief you later after I deal with Volkner," Crasher Wake said as they approached the gym. "How long are you staying here?"

"Gotta get back to the league soon once I get some stuff done here," Flint said, "But I'll try to stay as long as possible. Good luck." With that Flint disappeared back into the crowd. Crasher Wake sighed in exasperation before turning to face the Sunyshore gym.

The building itself was as large as a football stadium, with tinted windows all around, equip with solar panels that took in the sunlight. The fact that all of the solar power generators in the city were still not enough to prevent the blackout was a feat in itself. As the water gym leader came closer, he could actually hear the sound of gears as they mesh together like the sound of a mechanical clock. The doors were tightly locked, like the gates that keep a wrestler's introduction from being known until the right moment. And that moment was now as, without hesitation, Crasher Wake used his gym leader ID pass on the scanner nearby to get through the security system.

He stepped in and looked around, Crasher Wake could immediately figure out the cause of the black out in the entire city. Someone (and Crasher Wake had a good idea who) had decided to take all the city's electricity to power up what appeared to be some sort of electrical maze. Giant gears had suspending platforms that needed to be aligned correctly in order to move across the room. Someone was either extremely bored or had a lot of time on his hands in order to think up and construct these contraptions.

As he delved closer to the end of the gym, using many of the back doors present in every gym, he reached the leader area. Sitting on a lone bench was a figure draped in shadow that didn't even seem to acknowledge the presence of Pastoria's gym leader. Then again, with so much noise of crackling electricity and metal clanking metal, it was amazing that anyone had not gotten deaf yet.

"Hello Volkner," Crasher Wake said grinning, "It's been a while." The shadow didn't reply and slowly got up and turned around so the light could reveal his figure.

Volkner was a young adult, around his late twenties; he had short, yet thick, spiky yellow hair. He wore a tight black t-shirt underneath a deep ocean blue biker jacket. He was also had on navy blue long pants and comfortable gray loafers. He found standing up to be too bothersome for the time being, so he just shifted his body to the side, and lazily faced the larger man.

"Hello there, Crasher Wake," Volkner replied dully as he looked at Wake with glazed blue eyes, "Have you come to complain about the power outage as well?"

**Author Notes**

Whew! That was a lot of stuff. At least we're done with this arc and we can actually move on to a bit more relaxing one.

And we got to see Volkner! One of my favorite Sinnoh gym leader.

Oh yeah, anyone interested in the new Pokémon game that will be coming out soon? The one with Nobunaga's Ambition? It looks interesting though I really wonder why everybody gets cool Pokémon and then the only girl of the group gets a Jigglypuff. What's up with that?

Also, anyone playing Zelda Skyward Sword? Its times like these that I wish I have a Wii… sigh…

For those who know about the poll I'm taking, I've added new name choices so check them out as well. I'm not sure if you can change your choices but I think so…

Anyways, let's thank my reviewers before I go.

…

**KoreanoWaltz**

**SinCityAssassin42**

**Darkkami **(aww, thanks for the compliment and review. :D)

**ZXCVBNMEM**

**Solyeuse** (lol. At least I don't have twenty OCs running around. Now that would've been a disaster. XO Thanks for the review.)

**Ketchum Kid**

**Meta-Akira**

**BattleWithYourHeart**

**Light-Sakura**

**Whitoath**

**Memory** (No kidding, I wish they stop making us buy so many game consoles but then again, they probably make a lot of money by doing so. Thanks for the review.)

**Flashfire360**

**1029384756**

**Rsh056**

**Phanter black**

**ChillinLikeaVillain**

**N the puppet**

**Brenediction**

**CaptureGod-Otamegane**

**Light Lord Cybergate**

…

That's it from me. Happy late holidays from me!

I'll see you in the next chapter.

**-JapanDreamer**


	74. Wrapping Up in Veilstone

**Disclaimer: Don't own Pokemon.**

Oh my gosh, how long has it been since I updated? Anyways, I finally completed this chapter and it is pretty eventful.

We're finally moving on. I can't believe how long Veilstone arc took.

And thanks **SinCityAssassin42** for beataing.

Enjoy!

**Chapter 71:**

_Hearthrome City Contest Hall…_

Johanna watched worriedly at the newsfeed the scene of the burning warehouse, a few small crowds of people gathered around the television. There were several injured people being carried out but thankfully, they were covered and out of view.

"We are not sure how or why the fire was caused," the reporter continued her story in front of the smoking Veilstone warehouse; her face looked slightly red from the heat in the area. "Police investigators believe that a Pokémon battle took place inside the warehouse before the fire broke out, whether or not this was the cause of the fire is yet to be seen. President of Galactic Enterprises will appear later for a report of the incident."

"What in the world is going on?" Keira asked, having come over to check on Joanna, "Isn't Dawn and them over there?"

"Yes," Johanna replied, "She called me earlier to let me know she was okay and that she and her friends were going to Pastoria. She even sent back Fantina's Drifblim."

"Ugh, don't remind me of Fantina," Keira said, sighing. "I heard she went to Veilstone in a panic despite the fact that she's not allowed to leave the city." Keira remembered how the frantic purple hair gym leader just ran off from her duties as the Pokémon Contest judge.

"Hmm, that is so like her. She always wanted to be where the drama is." Johanna couldn't help but chuckle. She frowned a bit afterwards though as the news reporter continued her exposé.

"You know, even if she did call me... I feel like there's something going on that she's not telling me about."

"Really?" Keira was always fascinated by Johanna's mother-and-daughter relationship with Dawn.

"Call it mother's intuition. I didn't press for more detail though. I thought it could've been myimagination…" Johanna fell silent as she watched the television screen showing black smoke rising to the sky like an ugly smudge.

"Johanna? Keira?" Both of them turned to see one of the young female attendants of the current Pokemon Contest. "The recess is over and the award ceremony is starting. You two should head back."

"Alright, we're coming. Once this is done, we can go to Veilstone if you like and check things out," Keira said as she got up.

"Yeah, it's best we do." Johanna sighed in worrisome. "Hopefully nothing bad has happened. Then again, wouldn't want to press our luck too much."

…

_Galactic Headquarters…_

"You three are a disgraceful bunch."

Saturn swallowed his pride as his boss chagrined Jupiter, Mars, and him in the wide empty conference room. They were communicating electronically with their boss' face plastered on the screen. All three commanders stood up straight with their arms behind their back. None of them were allowed to hung their head or show any remorse. Those feelings were forbidden in the presence of the man.

"You let your passions get the best of you and now the city investigators are on our tail." Cyrus's face was almost devoid of emotion; only a slight twitch of his eye implied the seething fury he held back within him. His voice sounded monotonous and a bit unreal, needless to say his entire visage gave the three commanders goose bumps. "The gym leaders are alert of our plan; worse of all, the Sinnoh champion is right here, **right now**." Cyrus emphasized on those last two words to rightfully enforce how dire this was. He was particularly eyeing on Jupiter's movement, as she actually had a firsthand encounter with the Champion herself that wasn't pretty. She didn't give so much of a twitch; only her red bloodshot eyes narrowed back a glare. Mars looked between the two as a tense silence filled the room.

"You are to return to your posts," Cyrus continued after the bout of silence. He turned to stare back at the rest of the group. "You will be working on our side projects for now and have the grunts do more public relations work to throw off suspicion from our company. We cannot let them figure out what we're doing or all our efforts would be in vain. DO NOT fail me again. Dismiss." Then without another world, the screen blackened. None of them said anything as they left the room, but as soon as the door closed behind the, Mars looked positively livid.

"This is your fault!" Mars spat at Jupiter.

"Wha-? My fault?" Jupiter repeated with indignation and her eyes narrowed dangerously. "How dare you accuse me? If you haven't gotten so wrapped up in playing with your 'toys', we wouldn't be in this-."

"Enough!" Saturn sighed, rubbing his temples. "I'm sick and tired of hearing you two chattering and bickering."

"And what about you?" Mars snarled, "All YOU had to do was take down little two girls; and you lost!"

"One of them was a gym leader!" Saturn snapped, "And that's beside the point! Unlike you, my goal wasn't to defeat them out of pure enjoyment." Jupiter scoffed at his excuse and turned to leave, still fuming at the fact that the boss singled her out because of her mistake in Eterna City.

"See you two when this thing blows over," Jupiter left on that note.

"If we're done here, I suppose I'll go back to my own project, it's better than being with you ignoramuses." He and Mars both glared at each other one more time before storming off in opposite directions.

Saturn immediately took an earpiece and spoke in the microphone. "Charon, are you there? Get the recordings of my battle…"

"Ohohoho, you want to see how you lost miserably to two little girls?" Charon gave a small chuckle on the other line. "Want me to burn it onto a disc for memories? I'll even giftwrap it personally."

"I have no time for your sarcasm," Saturn snarled into the headpiece, "Just send me the recording!" Saturn hung up. The kidnapping may have failed but all was not lost. He had what he needed. All he needed to do now was a little bit of magic.

…

Mars arrived at her empty control room; her grunts had left to deal with the current situation, so she was alone. At least that's what she thought.

"Commander Mars!" The blond hair girl said in a startled voice. Apparently, the girl was half asleep in one of the desks while waiting for the redheaded commander and had just woken up and quickly wiped the drool form her mouth.

"Venus, you're still here?"

"Of course!" Venus said with a serious tone, "I was waiting to give you my report," She saluted and gave a serious grin. "I have prepared everything you have asked for."

"Very well," Mars said with an amused grin and crossed her arms in front of her chest. "Let's see what you have."

"Yes, ma'am!" Venus saluted as she held up the small stack of paper in one of her hand, "According to my finding and your awesome intuition, it appears that the targets have escaped back to Goldenrod as you predicted. Here are the hospital records." Mars took the papers and studied them carefully, Venus took out a small flash drive from her pocket as well, "and I even have the security footage!"

"Hmph, so they're coming back," Mars grinned as she took the flash drive, "I guess they thought we wouldn't be able to search for them while we're here in Sinnoh. That'll be a mistake they'll regret making." She quickly left the room and Venus followed her like an obedient Growlithe.

"You have a plan?"

"Of cooooourse," Mars said, still smiling, Venus recognized the look. A Seviper-like grin that gave away that the woman was hatching a plan to catch her pray, a devilish plan. And Venus just loved devilish plans.

"Oh! Oh! Let me help! Let me help!" Mars finally stopped to look back at Venus's eager face before acknowledging her assistance.

"Alright," Mars said and took the hospital records and handed it back to Venus, "You remember that kid you kidnapped back in Hearthome?"

"Oh, that cute boy. That guy we mistakenly taken instead of that girl…" Venus looked over the papers, he had really pretty, green eyes. "I'm guessing you want me to bring him back?"

"Yeah, but make sure to bring him back alive." Mars said as she grabbed a thick white leather raincoat from her locker. The coat had a yellow 'G' symbol in the front.

"Why are you getting a coat?"

"Well, I feel like I should visit up north. I still need to catch my prey." Without another word of explanation, Commander Mars left for her transport.

_Just you wait; you're going to regret that you ever tried to make a fool out of me._

…

_Johto: Goldenrod City's Hospital_

"How is it?" Daniel asked the boy sitting up in his bed. Ven still had bandages around his stomach from the wound and seemed rather weak. However, the doctor said that he was making a speedy recovery and should be back on his feet very soon, not to mention his appetite was growing. Daniel was getting ready to leave for the ship that would take them back to Sinnoh, but had dropped by to say goodbye.

"The doctor says I'm making good progress, but I still feel sick to my stomach," Ven admitted as he rubbed his stomach. Despite everything that had happened, Ven sounded pretty upbeat. "It's kind of like I ate styrofoam or something."

A girl came into the room after having talked with the doctor outside. Ven turned to greet her. "Oh hey, Celest."

"H-hey," she mumbled back. She looked away, already feeling embarrassed.

"Urgh, yeah. Styrofoam doesn't taste very good," Daniel grimaced before catching himself, "n-not that I actually had some before." Neither of them commented on it.

"Anyways, are you sure you'll be okay?" Daniel continued, wanting to change the subject, "I feel bad leaving you here."

"Don't worry about it; you have important things to do," Ven said, "But…" He turned to Celest now. "I don't know why you're still here. Any special reason for staying behind?"

"N-not really!" Celest said, trying very hard to keep her cool. "I still have business with you. That's all. You know, as a reporter." Celest could feel the twinge of guilt at this lie, but she could still remember the phone call conversation from earlier.

_Agent, your job is to keep the target safe. Find out why they were after him and make sure to keep him safe until my men can cover for him. Go undercover. Do not mess this up._

Despite the dead end duty she had received, Celest was pretty content. It did mean more time to spend with Ven, not that she kind of wanted that anyhow. The boss was nice enough to give her a second chance and Celest wasn't going to waste it. Her boss wanted Daniel to stay as well, but it'd be too suspicious to ask him to since he was already getting ready to leave. Either way, even if he did leave, her boss had some Johto agents on the boat to watch his movements and the police in Sinnoh will be there to pick Daniel up when he arrived at his destination. Of course, Daniel himself is completely unaware of this part of the plan.

"Oh right, the questions," Ven said thoughtfully as he scratched his messy blond hair. "That won't be a problem. You know you could just ask me them right now so you can make it to the ship on time. I don't think the next one comes until tomorrow."

"Oh no!" Celest said, trying to do some quick thinking. "It's not that simple! We need to go over security forms, witness accounts, medical references! You know, reporting… stuff."

"O…kaaaay." Ven and Daniel looked confused at Celest's sudden outburst. It was as though she was trying any excuse to stay behind.

"Well, would you like to push my wheelchair?" Ven asked, deciding to change the topic. "We can enjoy a bit of the scenery."

"Wh-what?"

"Oh, well, I figure since it is such a nice day, we can do a bit of that reporting outside… If you want to that is.

"Oh! S-sure…" Celest almost stumbled to the wheelchair and felt quite embarrassed.

"Keep in touch," Ven said, grinning to Daniel. "Let me know when you get to Sinnoh. Speaking of which, where are you docking?"

"Oh, a place called Snowpoint City," Daniel said, grimacing slightly. "It's the only ticket available at the moment."

"Well, you better keep warm," Ven said, grinning, "I heard that place is really cold."

…

_Sinnoh: Route 214:_

"Would you tell me again why we're going this way?" Dawn asked, trudging along the muddy path.

The area was still cool and misty now that the sun had started to set and the evening cool air was coming in. The ground had not hardened enough to make a good path and Dawn's boots were already getting muddy. Her backpack had a rather visible lump where she packed her egg container, not wanting it to get dirty.

Behind Dawn, Lucas had out all of his Pokémon, which delayed their journey even more. Dawn guessed that Lucas was trying to get his Pokémon exercise, he had been lamenting about his Pokémon's' poor speed.

"Come on everybody! One, two! One, two!" Lucas exclaimed as he slowly jogged along the road. So far, the training was a disaster; Grotle and Munchlax kept tripping over their own feet; every small breeze that passed by caused Drifloon to float off course. The only one making any process was Luxio, though it was getting muddy in the process for splashing into every mud puddle in front of it; Dawn couldn't help but groan.

"I'm telling you, Maylene told me that he is a good teacher!" Damion was fiddling with the new badge Maylene had given him. Although he didn't earn it through a battle, Damion told Dawn and Lucas that Maylene gave it to him for his efforts at the Warehouse, since she had enough trouble on her plate already and she didn't have the time to run a match. Maylene told Damion that he was to use the badge as a pass for the Pastoria gym leader and gave him a letter to explain the situation.

"You know Crasher Wake was one of the top pro wrestlers in the world, and that he uses the prize money he gets from Pokémon battles towards city development, he sounds like a hero!" Damion said, getting a bit more upbeat as he talked. "Maybe he could teach me some moves of his."

"As much as I trust Maylene's judgment, to an extent, what makes you think this guy will be willing to teach you?"

"Well, why not?" Damion exclaimed.

"I don't know; maybe because he has more important things to deal with? Like being a gym leader?" Before Damion could try and make a comeback with this statement, Lucas butted into the conversation rather weakly.

"Dawn, I'm hungry. Can we get something to eat?" Lucas looked even more exhausted than usual, his Pokémon mirrored his expressions, which was really was no surprise. The route they were on has been going on for a while.

"Oh Lucas," Dawn sighed, realizing her own hunger as well. She hasn't eaten anything except that breakfast. "I don't know. We had to leave the hotel in a hurry, thanks to Damion."

"Hey!" Damion retorted, "You were fussing about training for your Contest away from the city."

"The contest is less than two weeks! I need to practice as much as possible and there is no way I can do it in Veilstone with what had just happened."

"So don't blame it on me!"

Dawn was clearly not in the mood for arguing; instead she took the guidebook that she bought in Veilstone. "Okay, we're on Route 214. Just south is Valor Lakefront. When we reach there, there is a place called…oh! It's the Hotel Grand Lake!"

"Whoa!" Damion rubbed his ears, "No need to tell it to the guy in the next town over."

"No, you don't understand. I've been here on vacation before with my family," Dawn said, sounding excited, "There is a really exquisite restaurant here we can stop by to eat and we can sleep in the hotel."

"Oh thank goodness…" Lucas sigh a breath of relief.

"So how long will it take to get there?" Dawn looked at her clock to check the time.

"If we hurry now, we should get there within the hour," Dawn replied to Damion's question. Immediately, the wild blond streaked past her and charged down the muddy water.

"Hmph, wouldn't admit he was hungry too huh?" Dawn snapped the book shut and placed it back into her bag.

"So, should we follow him?"

"Yes we should. And Lucas? Call back your Pokemon. It wouldn't do any good for us if we arrive there dirtier than we are now."

…

_Seven Stars Restaurant…_

The restaurant was still in full swing despite the nightfall that shrouded the area – many of the patrons laughed and chattered, sheltered from the rain and placated with food and gossip. The place was very classy. Grand chandeliers hung from the ceiling, glittering like a hail of stars, the carpet was velvet red, complemented by the mahogany doors and creamy white walls. The place looked more like a mansion than a restaurant. Many of them were hotel guests and were dressed for the occasion; opulent and fancy, though a few outliers here and there could be spotted.

Sitting in the center of attention were Crasher Wake and Volkner. It was rare for them to meet, much less at a restaurant. Many of the customers quietly gossiped to themselves about it, others a bit more loudly. Volkner chose to block out those people's voices though he couldn't say the same with Crasher Wake's.

"I'm telling you, this restaurant here has the best food! You'll feel better in no time. Once you're done, you can help the city get its power back." Crasher Wake said powerfully, his fist connecting with the table in delight. Crasher Wake's attempt to cheer Volknor with good food and laughter sounded all right in Wake's mind.

"What's the point?" The other man sighed, despondent. "It's not something that is challenging." At that moment, the waitress brought the food over and two ice cold bottles of beer before leaving.

"You know, if you can fix it," Crasher Wake said groaning, "you should actually do it for the sake of the people living there. And quit complaining. The Elite Four haven't had challengers for a while because of you. Yet you don't see them griping about it."

"I believe that in life, one should focus taking on challenges rather than taking the short cut way of life. Doing something easy is not the way to go."

"You're missing the point here."

"Hey, what can I say? I'm a man who loves challenges… and a free meal," Volknor said as he took a bite of his steak. "You're paying for this right?" Crasher Wake could've sworn he saw a smile on Volknor's face.

"You idiot," Crasher Wake grinned as he ruffled the guy's yellow spiky hair. Crasher Wake worried for nothing though the act Volknor put up was really convincing. "You need to stop acting so depressed all the time. It gives mixed signals and trouble." Crasher Wake boomed with laughter, almost causing a commotion from the other tables.

"Well, I am depressed," Volknor said in a serious tone despite his playful smile in his eyes. He leaned his head against his arm that elbowed on the table. "I haven't gotten a single good challenge the past few days. I resorted the rest of my time trying to make the largest maze in the region. I must say, I should get a medal for that."

"A medal? You blacked out an entire city because of that!"

"Ah, don't worry about it," Volknor said, shrugging his shoulders. "It happens when dealing with geniuses. Though I do have to say, a person being able to make a blackout should deserve a medal as well." Crasher Wake couldn't help but bark out laughing again at Volknor's thought process, it was amusing.

"Well, still, you better apologize to the mayor," Crasher Wake said in a serious tone now.

"Will do. I'll make a formal apology tomorrow."

"And you need to talk with the Pokemon Committee chairman," Crasher Wake continued, "The man was worried about you. You know that right?"

"By the way, how is that old guy doing?" Volknor asked as he took a quick swig of his beer. "You told me things aren't looking so good for him. Then again, with the way he keeps pulling his hair, I say, he'll need a wig from now on." Volknor meant the last part as a joke but…

"Of course he is not doing good," Crasher Wake said quietly, "Things are looking bad at Veilstone, apparently the committee's investigation team's found a lot of suspicious things in the last day. And if it's what I'm thinking of, we might even have a war in our hands," Crasher Wake said uneasily.

"War?" Volknor responded, his eyebrow arched, "Don't go jumping to conclusions now. Everything will be fine. You know, per say…" Volknor fell silent. He realized that this was confidential information and shouldn't be talked about in public.

"You know what you need?" Crashed Wake suddenly said, needing to change the topic, "An apprentice. Someone you could teach. It's a good challenge."

"No need," Volknor said, scoffing, "That's not the type of challenge I'm looking for. I don't do well with kids."

"At least you do better with kids than with the ladies." Crasher Wake said this in a playful tone. "Maybe that should be your new challenge. Gah ha ha ha!"

"No need to burn a man like that," Volknor said with a hurtful pride in his tone. He took a sip of his water as their meals arrived. At that moment, the door swung open to reveal a couple of teenagers caught in the rainfall.

"Whoa, I'm surprised, this place is still open in this weather," the blond headed newcomer said rather loudly.

"Hey, keep your voice down!" the girl with black hair hissed. Behind her was a quiet boy of the same hair color; his large, soft eyes were filled with amazement as he looked around the place, particularly at the food. There was slight drool coming from his mouth though it might be rain water. Crasher Wake noticed how muddy they were, seems like they took the hard way down here.

The girl went up the nearest waiter, "Table for three please. Near the window if possible."

"If you get us some towels we can give you a little extra," the blond boy said holding a couple of small bills. The girl looked like she really liked her palm on her face at that moment. The other boy was just staring at everyone's meals until he was dragged off by the blond hair kid to be seated.

Crasher Wake looked on curiously, though his friend had already lost interest and was more focused on eating. As the waiter ushered them to window seats, Crasher Wake managed to catch the eye of the blond hair boy whose eyes widened with surprise.

"Hey!" The boy quickly rushed over to Crasher Wake. The black hair girl immediately stood up.

"Damion! Wha-?"

"You're Crasher Wake right?" the boy said with an excited tone in his voice.

"Yeah," Crasher Wake couldn't help but grinned. He was still popular with the people here in Sinnoh. The boy quickly tried to pull something out of his satchel. Crasher Wake thought it was for an autograph until Damion pulled out a slightly crumpled letter.

"My name is Damion and this is from Maylene." He held up the letter to Crasher Wake and the man immediately recognized the scrawled handwriting.

"The Veilstone gym leader?" Crasher was surprised as he took the letter to open it. Even Volknor scooted his seat to look over his shoulder.

"What she say?" Volknor drawled, trying to get a good look at the letter. The other two kids from the table came over. The girl looked surprised at the event taking place, but the black hair boy rubbed his stomach as he glanced at all the food the restaurant was serving.

"Damion, who are these people? Can't we get something to eat first?" Lucas asked the blond hair boy.

"_Hello?_ This is Crasher Wake," Damion hissed back at Lucas. "And this other guy-."

"Volknor," the man interrupted, sounding like it was taking a lot of effort for him to sound polite without looking too bored. He finished the remaining drops of his beer before continuing. "What brings you three here?"

"It's a restaurant. Why else will we be here?" Dawn asked, sounding a bit skeptical at this man's tone. She hesitated for a moment before continuing. "Are you Volknor – the Sunyshore gym leader?"

"Sounds like me," Volknor shrugged his shoulders apathetically.

_Well, you certainly don't act like a gym leader_, Dawn thought. The laid-back attitude, ruffled blue jacket and wrinkled black shirt were undignified, even if the gym leader next to him technically didn't have a shirt to begin with. Dawn decided to look around and noticed that they were attracting a lot of attention from the restaurant goers. Then again, people don't usually see kids just walk up to gym leaders for a chat.

"Hey," Lucas said as he pointed to Volknor's leftover food, "Are you going to finish that?" Volknor looked at the boy in surprise at the sudden question, not knowing how to answer him.

"Whoa, I'm shocked Maylene would ask me," Crasher Wake whistled in surprise as he finished reading and caused the conversation to stop in an abrupt halt.

"What did Little Pinkie say?" Volknor quickly asked, curiosity getting the best of him. Then again, Maylene wasn't really the type of person to 'send' letters, even asking for help no less. She was more the type for a hands-on and direct approach.

"Seems she wants me," Crasher Wake said as he placed the letter back into its envelope, "to take a boy named Damion as my apprentice."

"That's me! Damion!" Volknor took one quick look at the kid and couldn't help but give a snort of laughter though he did try to make it into an unconvincing cough.

"What's so funny?" Damion asked, sounding slightly taken aback by this response.

"You remind me of a funny guy I know," the Sunyshore gym leader looked amused. "Very rash though."

"And what's _that _supposed to mean?" Damion shot back angrily.

"Okay, hold it," Dawn said, not wanting to get involved with another fight, "No need for this kind of talk. Damion, you should've waited until after they finished eating to talk with them. Let's just go back to the table and wait for Crasher Wake's response."

"All right, you can be my apprentice," Crasher said nonchalantly as he set the letter down on the table.

"What?" Dawn said with her mouth gaping in shock. She wasn't the only one. Volknor choked on his steak at the words.

"I think Mr. Wake said that he'd take Damion as an apprentice," Lucas piped up.

"Yes, I know that Lucas," Dawn muttered, "I'm just surprised he accepted it so quickly."

"Really?" Damion couldn't believe his ears. What a lucky chance!

"Wake, are you serious?" Volknor sounded incredulous. "You do realize the responsibility you're taking on. Especially with that kid, he looks like a handful."

"Course I am," Crasher Wake said with an amused smile as he looked at Damion, "I like his spunk and his attitude. I don't see why not. Besides, Maylene doesn't usually ask for help with these things in the first place, she must really have her hands full."

"Yes!" Damion pumped his fist in the air as a public display of celebration.

"Whoa there, you can be my apprentice, but under two conditions," Crasher Wake continued with a sly grin on his face. Damion stopped in mid jump.

"Should've known it was too good to be true," Dawn muttered as she shook her head from side to side.

"First," Crasher Wake explained, "whatever I say goes. Which means whenever I ask you to do something, you do it. Chores will be a part of your apprenticeship. It helps teach responsibility."

"Fine," Damion replied, though he didn't like the idea of working. "And… what's the second thing?"

"Second," Crasher Wake grinned as he said this and gave a look at Volknor, "You and one of your friends take on me and Volknor here in a doubles Pokémon battle right now. I'd like to see what you brought to the ring."

**Author's Notes**

I would love to see who Damion choses as his partner. Who do you think will be the one? Lucas or Dawn?

Oh for those who read Reverse Time, it is now off hiatus and will be the next update. Look forward to it!

On a side note, anybody planning to play that Pokemon Conquest game? Looking at it, it seems interesting though the concept of fighting is new to me.

And, totally random, but has anyone seen the first two episodes of _The Legend of Korra_? Yes, I admit, I'm an Avatar fan. I really love how the plot line is done. It's rare to see a cartoon that goes in depth besides fighting and stuff with such cool animation. Well, it's my opinion of the show so far. I just love how they trolled us about what happened to Zuko's mom.

Anyways, let's thank my reviewers before I go.

…

**Darkkami**

**Light-Sakura**

**karnivallo**

**ChillinLikeaVillain**

**ZXCVBNMEM**

**DJDanny88**

**aXis Elric**

**Ketchum Kid**

**Flashfire360**

**In Between Memories**

**RuruPuppy2854**

**DreadlyRise**

…

Thanks for reading and I'll see you in the next chapter.

**-JapanDreamer**


	75. Tag Battle with Crasher Wake and Volkner

**Disclaimer: Ohhhh mannnnn, here we go again. I don't own Pokemon**

Well, what do you know? JD is finally updating again. O.o

From last time, Damion is going to challenge the gym leaders to a double battle and needs a partner. Who will it be?

This chapter is finally done, so enjoy! It's a pretty long chapter so enjoy!

**Chapter 72:**

"Really?" Damion gaped. "Here? Right now?"

"Yeah sure, why not?" Crasher Wake as though the idea was a good one. "We'll call it your initiation test. You're not required to win as this is merely something for me to gauge your strength and for some fun." There was stunned silence as everybody tried to digest this new piece of information.

"Wake, you can't be serious," Volkner finally said, sounding skeptical as well, "It's like asking a Pokémon egg to battle against the legendary Pokémon. And more importantly, why do I have to join?"

"Consider it as a challenge to get you out of that slump."

"Is this some sort of punishment for me because I blackout an entire city? You can't expect a simple battle to get me out of my depression."

_Wait, did Volkner blackout Sunyshore City?_ Dawn shook her head in disbelief at the insanity of the situation and Lucas simply looked crestfallen. Looks like food will have to wait again.

"Oh come on, it'll be fun," Crasher Wake grinned, sounding overly pleased with his "ingenious" plan. "Plus, I won't have to pay for your meal if we win." Volkner still frowned, clearly not pleased with the turn of events.

"Wait, we have to pay for your meal if I lose? What kind of condition is that?" Crasher Wake turned to puzzled Damion.

"Do any of you know what's so special about this restaurant?" Damion and Lucas gave each other bewildered looks, and not surprisingly, it was Dawn who responded.

"It one of the finest restaurants in the region," Dawn responded informally. "They have a large variety of exotic cuisines."

"Well, there's that," Crasher Wake admitted, "But it is also a place where trainers can have double battles. Two trainers vs. two and each with one Pokémon. Winners will receive a free full course meal from the Seven Stars Restaurant."

"No charge?" Damion gaped. Lucas looked interested now. All-you-can-eat nonstop without any worries of paying?

"Really?" Dawns felt that something was suspicious about this. "I been here a lot before but I never heard of this rule."

"Well, the rules are usually reserved for trainers and it must be a partner battle," Crasher Wake shrugged his shoulders. "It's popular enough to be known by the locals, and they do come out for battle, especially on weekends. I mean, who can say 'no' to good food? But for outsiders, not many people travel in pairs. And anyways, most who come to the restaurant are tourists."

"Really…" Dawn fell silent, surprised at this new piece of info. Maybe she was so focused on coordinator aspects in her home's library that she neglected to read up this information.

"All right then, I'm in!" Damion grinned at Crasher Wake. The blond hair trainer was excited at the prospect of battling. After being refused earlier from Maylene, Damion was itching to fight. "I accept this challenge." Volkner immediately groaned and didn't even try to hide his disdain.

"Damion, are you sure?" Dawn interrupted, sounding worried, "You're going up against two gym leaders and you never done a tag team battle before. It's a huge disadvantage for you."

"Well, there is always a time for firsts. Besides, this would be a really good challenge for me. Let's bring it on!"

"Excellent," Crasher Wake said, pleased with the response. The gym leader was already taking a liking for the kid. He had spunk and enthusiasm to take on challenges. "But the question now is who will be your partner?"

"I would like to be Damion's partner." Everybody immediately turned at the sound of the voice and Damion's and Dawn's jaws dropped in shock at Lucas who timidly had his hand raised.

"Lucas, are you sure?" Damion asked. He was slightly uneasy in having Lucas as his partner. "Out of all of us, you're the least interested in battling."

"I have to agree with Damion on this," Dawn said as well, "Are you sure you know what you're getting yourself into?"

"It's okay," Lucas said sounding determined and looked directly at Damion, "I won't drag you down." Damion stared for a moment and then had a huge grin on his face.

"Finally, you're starting to grow a backbone! Guess all that teaching finally paid off!"

"Huh? What are you talking about? I've always had a backbone," Lucas looked so confused, not comprehending that this was a compliment. "Otherwise I wouldn't be able to walk."

"That's not what I meant! Backbone in this case means…" Damion paused for a moment when he realized that this was going nowhere, "You know what, never mind." Dawn couldn't help but giggle at this exchange.

"Excellent!" Crasher Wake bellowed with amusement. "In that case, we should use the battle room. Yo! Garcon!" Crasher Wake snapped his fingers to get the closest waiter's attention.

"Garcon?" Volkner questioned, raising one eyebrow with skepticism. "Since when did you speak French?"

"Since I made the mistake of taking Fantina out here to eat," Crasher Wake said, shuddering at the memory. That woman is so demanding about everything from the appetizer to the desserts.

"A date?" Volkner asked, raising one of his eyebrows in skepticism.

"Don't be stupid," Crasher Wake said, scoffing, "She wanted to try out this high end restaurant and needed an escort."

"You mean she made you pay."

"Yeah, that's about right…"

Volkner shook his head sadly though his eyes were filled with mischief. "It looks like you have trouble with the ladies as much as I do." Crasher Wake was saved from answering this by the waiter.

"Yes Mister Crasher Wake?" The slim waiter appeared instantaneously and bowed slightly in front of the large muscular macho man.

"Hey there," Crasher Wake immediately turned his attention back to the real matter at hand. "Please prepare the double room battle."

"N-now? This late at night?" The waiter looked a bit startled at this request. The restaurant was still going be open for a couple more hours, but no one battled this late at night and so the room was usually locked by the evening.

"Well, yeah," Crasher Wake said, looking perplexed at the response. "That's okay right?"

"W-well…"

"Forget it," Volkner sighed, clearly uninterested to battle and leave his unfinished meal, "I say we just ditch the idea." Dawn couldn't help but agree with Volkner in this case. As much as she hated to admit it, Dawn was starving at the moment.

"Oh no sirs!" the waiter sounded fluster now. "I-I'll go check with the manager first. Please excuse me for just a moment." With a quick and hasty bow, the man left in a flash. It took only a matter of minutes before a rather tall and handsome man in a white tuxedo suddenly appeared. He had neat black hair and a dazzling smile.

_Wow, incredibly good service_, Damion couldn't help but admire.

"Gym Leader Crasher wake and Gym Leader Volkner. I am Roman, the owner of this restaurant. I heard that you two wish to have a double battle correct?" Roman gave a deep bow in respect.

"Yes," Crasher Wake said, sounding a bit embarrassed, "if it is not too much trouble. I know it is a selfish request from me…"

"Then don't ask," Volkner muttered though not loud enough for everyone to hear.

"Not at all," Roman nodded, "It would be my honor. I'll have the room prepared immediately. I'll send someone as soon as it is done. Please wait for only just a second." With that the man motioned the waiter who quickly went to follow orders and Roman too left. There was now a scurry of gossip spreading around at the other tables.

A double battle? With two gym leaders as opponents? Oh, this was something they definitely had to see.

"Now then," Crasher Wake turned to the gloomy Volkner, "What do you say? Ready to battle?"

"Oh now you're asking me?"

"Oh Volkner, please? You're not going to regret it." There was a moment of silence as Volkner glanced at his unfinished food. He definitely looked like he was going to regret it.

"Fine," Volkner sighed as he got up and shook his spiky blond hair from side to side, "Though I'm only doing this just so I can get a free meal."

…

_Veilstone City…_

After that nasty incident in traveling through the underground sewer only to be arrested by the local police for trespassing on Galactical Headquarters, Leander and Tory were now locked in a small room and were going to be interrogated. They were forced to shower (smelly awful from walking through the sewers) and dressed in some spare clothing found in the police headquarters. Their Pokémon had been taken away from then though they were promised that the Pokémon will be returned immediately after being questioned. At least, Tory thought, that they weren't being handcuffed like real criminals.

Leander was gulping down the water from the pitcher that the policeman had so kindly left. The thought of going to jail drove Leander nuts. What if his parents saw him on television? Oh the humiliation and shame he would bring upon them. Even though he ran away from home to escape from the pressure of being the son of his famous parents, Leander still didn't want to let them down. The poor teenager was about to explode from anxiety. The dead silence in the room wasn't helping at all and Leander was feeling quite jittery.

"They're taking a really long time," Leander said, trying to start some sort of conversation. "I wonder what's keeping them? And uh… I kind of need to go to the restroom… I think I drank too much water…"

Tory, on the other hand, was quiet and was thinking about how all this could have happened to him. Ever since Floaroma Town Pokémon Contest and the infiltration in Eterna City at the Galactic Headquarters there, Tory couldn't believe how lucky he was to survive those encounters with Team Galactic. Funny how now his life was in the hands of the 'good' guys. But he couldn't just stop here. He still had a mission to find his sister and these cops weren't going to stop him.

Finally, the door opened and in step in the familiar man who called himself Looker. Leander immediately jumped to his feet.

"Sir! I didn't do anything wrong, I swear! You can't throw me in jail." Looker rubbed the temple of his head and sighed as though he was used to this pleading of 'not guilty'.

"You have trespassed on government property and trespassed on private property and had hindered the police force to do their job. Are you denying what I am saying?"

"Okayyyy, so I did do something wrong…" Leander slowly sat back down and looking downright shameful.

"Now, tell me what were you two doing down in Veilstone's sewer system."

"Um, it's a tourist attraction?" Leander grinned weakly under Looker's cool stare.

"Are you trying to be funny at a time like this?"

"No sir!" Leander squeaked. "What I meant was… well…" Leander gave a hopeless glance at the mute Tory who seemed to take his 'right to remain silent' very seriously. "It's not something I think I can share or explain." Looker gave a long hard look at the two. Leander could see the looming prison bars coming closer and closer. Then, to Leander's surprise, Looker tossed a manila folder onto the table and the words 'Classified' were printed in red on top of it.

"Go ahead and read it," Looker said as he noticed the puzzled looks on the two teenagers' faces.

Hesitating at first, Tory reached over and opened the folder. Opening it, there were pictures and a typed report in it. Tory's eyes widened with shock with what they were reading.

"Where did you get this?" Tory demanded, speaking up for the first time. Tory folded the folder shut and out of Leander's view as though the word 'Classified' pertained to Leander only. The guy looked puzzled and looked back and forth between Tory and Looker.

"Now that I have your attention," Looker said calmly, taking a seat opposite to the two, "I'll ask you this again once and only once. What were you two doing in the Veilstone sewer system?"

…

_Seven Stars Restaurant…_

"Whoa!" Damion couldn't help but drop his jaw at the large room. Although it had the shape of a regular battle floor, there was a sense of elegance of the place. There was even a second floor where audience can lean against the balcony and view the battle from below. This was where Dawn was at the moment. The room was spacious and the ceiling was high so that trainers need no fear of damaging it when using aerial attacks. Part of the ceiling was made of glass which showed the starry outline of the outside world and cast a pale moonlight onto the sparkling yellow floor that had white lines to outline the battle space and the trainers' boxes.

On the left area were Crasher Wake and Volkner and the right were Lucas and Damion. The two trainers gaped at their surroundings and seemed to be too busy to remember what they were doing here.

"Good luck you two!" Dawn cried out from above as she waved excitedly. Although she had a pretty good idea who was going to win, Dawn couldn't help but cheer for her friends. Lucas gave a shy wave back while Damion replied with a thumb up.

In the center and at the side of the battlefield was the waiter from earlier (who apparently was also the referee) and have been waiting patiently for the signal to begin the rules of the competition.

"This tag battle match is between the two gym leaders of Pastoria and Sunyshore – Crasher Wake and Volkner. The challengers are Lucas and Damion from Twinleaf Town. Each trainer is only allowed one Pokémon on the field. The victors will be declared when both Pokémon from the other team is deemed unable to battle. You may send out your Pokémon at this time."

All right enough chit-chat!" Crasher Wake said, holding out his Poke ball. "Let's go Quagsire!" A brilliant flash of light appeared on the field and revealed a rather large and heavy Quagsire. The blue Pokémon swayed back and forth as though doing some sort of slow hula dance. "Don't fail me now! Get ready for a good battle!" Crasher Wake's Quagsire merely blinked its little beady eye and gave a long relaxing sigh.

"Quaggggggg…" Well, that certainly can motivate anyone.

Damion took out his Pokedex to read the data. "Let's see… Quagsire… A dimwitted Pokémon. It doesn't care if it bumps into boats or rocks while swimming…" Damion cast another glance at the beady eye blue Pokémon whose body seemed to be made out of jello. Well, the Pokedex was certainly right about one thing; the Quagsire definitely looked dimwitted. It didn't even try to look strong. Was there something about it that Damion needed to look out for?

"Don't underestimate my little Quagsire," Crasher Wake said as though reading Damion's mind. "It's a whole lot stronger than it looks." The gym leader turned to his lazy partner who looked as though he was just going to fall asleep while standing. "Come on Volkner! Where is your enthusiasm?"

"Fine," Volkner groaned, sounding as though the idea of sending out his Pokémon was way too much effort for him. "Let's go Luxray!" A black lion shaped Pokémon popped out of the Poke ball. It growled menacingly and pawed the ground.

"Oh so that's what Luxio evolves into," Lucas said brightly, pulling his Pokedex out and reading the data. "Luxray… has the ability to see through anything and can spot prey hiding behind objects… Wow!" Lucas looked up with reverence at Volkner's Pokémon. "That's so cool!"

"Yeah whatever," Volkner muttered, clearly not interested in the enthusiasm from the boy.

"This is so weird," Dawn muttered to herself, watching the scene before her. Crasher Wake's Quagsire had such a similar personality like Volkner's while Volkner's Luxray had Crasher Wake's motivation to battle. It's like the Pokémon should be swapped between the two gym leaders or something like that.

"Challengers," the referee announced. "Please, send out your Pokémon."

"All right then," Damion turned to Lucas, "This is it. Try not to screw up okay?" Lucas gave a nod of understanding and both took out their selected Poke ball.

"Go, Monferno!" The fire chimpanzee popped out of its Poke ball and looked raring for a fight. Its fire tail cast a glow on to the field.

"Let's go! Munchlax!" The normal type and heavy Munchlax waddled next to the excited Monferno. The little Munchlax yawned and scratched its head in confusion as though it didn't understand what it was supposed to do.

"Now that's more like it," muttered Dawn as she looked at the two Pokémon. These two definitely matched their trainer's personality.

"Whaha," Crasher Wake laughed with amusement at the puny Pokémon he and Volkner were facing. "Monferno and Munchlax eh?" Volkner had sighed a breath of relief. He could tell there was no competition. The battle will be over quick enough and he could go back to his free dinner.

"Are you sure you don't want to switch Pokémon?" Crasher Wake continued, "Fire types aren't good against water types Damion." He gave Monferno a critical eye as though worried that the battle would be too easy to win.

"Don't underestimate us either! A little bit of water wouldn't hurt," Damion was ecstatic at the challenge. "I'm sure Monferno can take your Quagsire down easy." Crasher Wake merely grinned as though he wasn't going to let things be easy for Damion.

On the other hand, Dawn frowned. Although Damion was confident, it was true that Monferno was at a huge type disadvantage. Not to mention the guy was reckless. And Lucas… well, Lucas' Munchlax had never been in an official battle. The way it yawned and absentmindedly scratched its head worried Dawn. Was there any chance these two Pokémon could win?

"Begin battle!"

"Make this quick Luxray," Volkner didn't skip a beat, "Use Spark! On Munchlax!" The black lion's was crackling with electricity before sending out the attack.

"Defense Curl!" Munchlax curled up into a ball and the electricity shattered harmlessly against its fur.

"Wow, making the first move," said Crasher Wake to Volkner, "I'm impressed. You're actually into this battle more than you say you are." The electric gym leader rolled his eyes in annoyance but didn't say anything.

_So_, Volkner thought, _it'll take more than simple attacks to finish them off…_ Although it was faint, Volkner could feel a slight twinge of excitement.

Damion wasn't going to hesitate either and decided to take the offense as well. "Monferno! Use Flame Wheel!" Monferno's body was engulfed in flames and with a screech charged forward at the Luxray and Quagsire. However, the two gym leaders didn't seem to be worried from the attack and Crasher Wake decided it was his turn to show off.

"Rain Dance!" Dark clouds immediately formed inside the room and rain poured heavily down onto the field. How it was possible in an indoor stadium, one could only guess. Luckily, it was only in the battle area so Dawn wasn't soaking wet. Unfortunately, it was harder to see what was going on and she was starting to wish she had some binoculars or something. One thing was for sure. Damion and Lucas were now at a huge disadvantage.

Monferno's fire attack was immediately dowsed by the pelting rain and the Pokémon slipped on the floor from the water, screeching in pain.

"Achoo!" Lucas sneezed from the sudden cold air. Munchlax shivered and looked as though it wanted to give up and return back to its nice warm Poke ball.

"ARGH!" Damion groaned as he got sprayed with water from above. He wasn't the only one who wasn't pleased at the sudden change of weather.

"Seriously? Did you have to use this move?" Volkner said exasperatedly to Crasher Wake, "I didn't ask for a free shower along with the dinner." The gym leader's spiky yellow hair was now soaked and clung to the side of his face. If he looked annoyed before, he was definitely frustrated now.

"Oh quit complaining," Crasher Wake laughed at the sight of his unhappy wet partner. "We need to spice things up. All right Quagsire, let's use Water Gun!" The blue Pokémon sent out a jet stream of water. However, its power was way stronger than the usual Water Gun attack.

"Rain Dance increases water type attacks. You have no hope in defending simple attacks like that Damion." Dawn immediately checked her Pokedex for this attack. It was true. Rain Dance

"Munchlax!" Lucas called out, "Get in front of Monferno and use Defense Curl!" Lucky for Monferno, Lucas' Munchlax was close by and managed to block the Water Gun attack. "That was close," Lucas sighed and decided to make the next move again. "Muchlax use Screech!" The little Pokémon took a huge breath and gave a weird eerie shriek across the room. Quagsire and Luxray flinched from the sound and backed off.

"Oi," Damion exclaimed, "Don't hog the entire spotlight! Monferno Mach Punch!" Damion's Monferno immediately charged forward with incredible speed and smacked straight into the large lumpy Quagsire. It fell over like a pillow in the shape of a bowling pin. However, in the process of charging forward, Monferno had smacked into Munchlax who slipped and fell into a puddle of water.

"I was trying to help you," Lucas said, "Why did you do that?"

"What? You were in my way! Listen, Crasher Wake is my opponent. Volkner is yours okay?"

"But-!"

"No 'buts'! Just do as I say, got it?"

Dawn groaned in frustration. She knew that this would happen. Damion didn't understand too much on teamwork, especially when partner with someone who didn't have much experience in battling in the first place. Looks like this match had already been decided.

"Hmm," Crasher Wake commented to Volkner, "It looks like those two are having trouble working together."

"Really, now," Volkner replied in a bored tone. He was leaning back with his eyes closed and his arms were across his chest. He wasn't even giving any orders to Luxray who looked expectedly at the lax gym leader. "What did you expect from a bunch of newbies at tag battles?" The two gym leaders chattered as though they were spectators instead of battlers.

"Well, so far, what do you think about the two?"

Volkner opened his eyes slightly to observe the two trainers. Damion looked frustrated at the protesting Lucas. "That guy Damion. He has spirit, I'll give him that. His Pokemon also has good speed and all but his strategy is lousy. He is focused on charging forward instead of thinking through. He needs to learn how to stay calm."

"What about Lucas?"

"He's even worse," Volkner scoffed, "His Pokémon is not built for speed and it's obvious that it definitely doesn't even have power to make up for it. And unfortunately, his defense is just average at the moment, so he is not much of a challenge. But…"

"But?" This was unexpected. Volkner usually just ranted on all of the faults.

"He is very observant in the battle. I think he has the best chances to improve," Volkner said grudgingly as though he didn't like giving praises. "He simply lacks experience."

"Okay then," Crasher Wake said, returning his attention to the battle, "If that's it, then we should finish this battle before they get more embarrassed. Quagsire, Mud Shot!"

"Luxray, use Crunch!"

Quagsire shot out a blast of brown mud straight at Monferno. Luxray rushed forward and took a bite at Munchlax and shook it around like a ragged doll. Monferno and Munchlax flew back from the power of the attack and landed in front of the two trainers.

"Monferno!"

"Munchlax!"

"What are you doing?" Damion snapped at Lucas. Damion was in a foul mood now and Lucas was terrified.

"I didn't do anything," Lucas whimpered in protest.

"Exactly! You didn't do ANYTHING. You're supposed to have my back."

"I thought you told me to stay out of your way!"

"Arghhh, you guys!" Dawn yelled in frustration from above. Even though she wasn't battling, she was humiliated at the sight. "Will you stop arguing and try to work together?"

"Huh?" Damion and Lucas said at the same time. They were surprised at the sudden interruption.

"Look at the two of you!" Dawn snapped. "How can you call yourself trainers if you can't even do a simple attack? Damion, stop criticizing everything Lucas does or doesn't do! You're not helping him either! And Lucas, make sure that you give Damion space to fight! You need to back him up, not stick to him like glue.

So, stop whining and fight like real trainers. If you guys embarrass me any further, I'll make sure to smack both of your heads together until you get this right! UNDERSTAND?" As though to raise the drama, thunder roared from the Rain Dance attack at that precise moment.

"Y-yes," Damion and Lucas said weakly. It was apparent that Dawn's rage was ten times worse than Damion's.

"W-well, I guess I'll try and help out more," Damion said grudgingly. "Just… watch my back okay?"

"Sure," Lucas nodded, "I'll make sure your attacks hit."

"BWAHAHA, looks like she got them on the ropes," Crasher Wake said, looking amused at Dawn.

"And you wonder why I like being single," Volkner sighed. "Let's get this over with. Luxray! Hit them with another Spark!" Luxray gave a roar as its fur crackled with furious power of electricity. The rain has obviously made the electricity attack more powerful.

"Munchlax! Defend with Stockpile!" Munchlax's body expanded as it took the full hit. While still standing, It was clear that Munchlax wasn't going to last long if it kept getting hits like these.

"Luxray, finish off Munchlax!" Luxray moved in forward to finish the job.

"Monferno! Mach Punch!" The fire Pokémon smashed its fists against Luxray, causing it to sprawl backwards.

"D-Damion?" Lucas gaped in shock that Damion would help.

"Come on Monferno! Use Flame Wheel again!"

"Have you forgotten Damion?" Crasher Wake said, "That attack won't work! Quagsire, use Water Gun!" The powered up Water Gun slammed against Monferno and the Pokémon was sent flying back again.

"Damion, you need to fight smartly. Your Monferno is already down to its last health. It wouldn't last against my Quagsire's water attacks even without the Rain Dance."

"Okay, fine," Damion said, suddenly grinning. "Then I guess I too need a power up. Monferno!" The monkey Pokémon screeched and a sudden burst of flame surrounded its entire body.

"W-what?" Crasher Wake gaped. Even Volkner suddenly looked up, interested at the sudden change of events.

Curious at the sudden scene before her, Dawn took out her Pokedex. "That's Monferno's Blaze ability! When low in health, its fire power increases." Dawn looked at Damion's triumphant grin and realized that this was what Damion was planning for the entire time. No wonder why he was fighting even more rashly than usual… Well that definitely was a risky plan but if he can pull it off…

"Yup. Ever since I realized Monferno's Blaze ability, I've been itching to try it out. Monferno! Use Flame Wheel again!" Monferno used the same attack except this time, the power was definitely greater. It knocked into Quagsire with great force, causing the water Pokémon to groan in pain. "All right, we can do this!" Monferno chattered in excitement, pleased that it managed a hit.

"Whoa, gusty move there my boy," Crasher Wake looked thoroughly impressed. "However, if Monferno gets hit, then it's over for you."

"That's where I come in!" Munchlax suddenly appeared right before Quagsire. "Munchlax," Lucas said, taking advantage of the situation, "Use Lick!"

Slap! Munchlax extended its tongue out and gave Quagsire a slimy attack in the face. Quagisre shook its head in a confusing way and then immediately cringed in pain as though the attack had left aftereffects.

"Paralyzed?" Crasher Wake immediately recognized the symptoms since Quagsire had been attacked with Stun Spores from grass type Pokémon, but still, the gym leader couldn't believe it. Lick was a ghost-type move and it was rare to cause paralysis. What were the chances?

"Hey Crasher Wake." The gym leader turned to Volkner who seemed to be… smiling? Crasher Wake couldn't believe it. Volkner haven't smiled like that for so long that it looked rather unaccustomed on his face. "The battle is getting interesting now. I'll take it from here. Luxray, no holding back now! Use Charge and then Discharge!" The lion Pokémon roared and immediately started to absorb the static that hung in the air. The lion's body crackled with electricity as sparks danced around it.

"No!" Damion panicked now and turned to Lucas. "If he releases that attack, we're finished! Monferno is already in a weaken state so I can't use close combat attacks… and unfortunately, they're my only strong attacks. What are we going to do?" Lucas was panicking now as well. Was the battle over already?

"Munchlax!" Lucas looked desperately at his Pokémon. "Do something!" Munchlax turned to its trainer and scratched its head like it was confused. Then it slowly turned back to face Luxray.

"Do something?" Damion repeated exasperatedly to Lucas, "What kind of response are you expecting it from it?"

"Munchlaxxxxxx!" The Pokémon opened its mouth and blasted an icy cold attack. It shot it to the air where the rain clouds were. Suddenly, instead of rain falling down, a downpour of hail fell instead.

"Ow!" Damion yelped in pain as the gumdrops size ice came pelting down like bullets. All the Pokémon and trainers were flinching from the pain of the ice cold attack. Luxray roared in pain, unexpected at the sudden attack but it continued to stay still as it charged for its attack. Monferno was jumping back and forth, screeching as it tried to avoid the showering ice but in the process slipped. Quagsire and Munchlax were being bonked with ice on top of their heads but the two merely just stood there dumbly as the pain slowly registered into their brains.

"W-what the-?" Lucas gaped at the sudden turned off events. "What was that?"

"Eureka!" Crasher Wake said, who seemed to be the first to realize what was going on, "That's a Blizzard! It caused the Rain Dance to turn into a Hail attack. Oh man! I did not see that coming!"

"This is no time to sound amused," Volkner looked angry as he got bonked on the head again, "I'm being pelted by freaking ice balls of doom!"

"Since when did your Munchlax know Blizzard?" Damion demanded to Lucas.

"I-I dunno," Lucas responded, clearly looking as shocked as Damion."I-I guess just now?"

"Wait, why do I care? This could be a huge chance for us! Lucas, tell Munchlax to do that attack again but aim it at Luxray this time!"

"Too late!" Volkner said, sounding serious for the first time. "Luxray, finish them off!"

"GAHHH!" Bursts of powerful electricity shot out of Luxray's fur. Suddenly, the whole stadium was engulfed with a brilliant powerful bright light. Damion and Lucas had to shield their eyes from the brightness. The ground shook slightly and when the light dissipated...

"Monferno!"

"Munchlax!" Lucas and Damion rushed to their two Pokémon who were both on the ground and had fainted from the overwhelming attack. The only Pokémon left standing were Volkner's Luxray though it looked thoroughly exhausted and weakened from using such a powerful attack and Crasher Wake's Quagsire who just stood there dumbly as though it had no idea what was going on.

The gym was in a horrible mess. Glass for above have shattered and the pieces lay scattered all over the place, allowing the warm air from outside to come in and give off a mist. The floor was scorched with lots of long jagged lines, leaving thin crevasses into the ground. The waiter's perfectly straightened hair was now all curly with static.

"T-The match is over," the referee gasped as though he just had a heart attack. "Both M-Munchlax and Monferno are unable to battle. T-the winner is Crasher Wake and Volkner."

"Wow, that was a good battle wasn't it?" Crasher Wake returned his Quagsire. "Sorry old buddy. I'll get you healed up in no time."

"Hmm, I supposed," Volkner shrugged as he returned his Luxray. "Good job," Volkner whispered to the Pokemon, "I had fun even if it was just last few seconds."

"AWWW!" Damion groaned and dropped to his knees in frustration. "I lost!"

"S-sorry," Lucas said, looking crestfallen. He was hoping that his fighting skill have improved enough that they could actually have a chance to win. If only he had ordered that Blizzard attack sooner.

"What are you moping about? You were awesome!"

"Huh?" Lucas looked up puzzled at the compliment.

"Think!" Damion grinned as he got up to look face-to-face with Lucas, "That Blizzard attack was amazing! With practice, that could be your trump card! I'll even help you master that attack for good!" Damion extended his hand out but Lucas didn't take it. "Huh? What's wrong?" Damion noticed a couple of tears falling down from Lucas' face.

"Oh, n-nothing," Lucas quickly wiped them off. "I-I'm just… so happy."

"Hey, man up!" Damion said, uneasy at the sight of the tears. "Guys don't cry!"

"I-I'm not crying!"

"That's the spirit!"

"Well, they lost. No surprise there," Dawn sighed as she watched from above, "Oh well. At least we can finally eat, and they made it into an exciting battle to talk about over dinner." She couldn't believe how much improvement the two had made since the beginning of the journey. And more importantly, it seemed like Damion has finally accepted Lucas into the group. Dawn gave a small grin as she laid her head against the railing.

Right next to Dawn was her precious egg incubator that she had gotten from the cyclist Rald in Eterna City. Slowly, in the midst of everything, the egg started to glow.

**Author's Notes**

Wow, major long battle. I went insane with the writing and hope I did okay. Obviously Damion and Lucas lost. I think it would be embarrassing if Volkner and Crasher Wake lost that quickly even with type advantage.

I've been out of town recently so I don't have much news about things except OLYMPICS 2012! WOO!

Question for those who watch the Olympics, which sport are you most interested in?

Oh, and my birthday is today. XP

Let's thank my reviewers before I go.

…

**ZXCVBNMEM**

**Solyeuse**

**Darkkami**

**Karnivallo**

**SagaAuraMana**

**ImNotOfThisWorld**

**Phanter black**

**ChillinLikeaVillain**

**Furryfur**

**Light-Sakura**

**Dreadly Rise**

**Ashley Eon**

**You just read my name**

**HikariKotoneLyrics**

**Trainer-Ken**

**Razedragon**

**ellomotto5**

**N the puppet**

**Amy47101**

**Whitoath**

**A Midsummer Night's Dream**

…

Well, that's it from me. Thanks for reading and I'll see you in the next chapter.

**-JapanDreamer**


	76. Everybody Except Fantina

**Disclaimer: Don't Own Pokémon **

Well, a new chapter! We left off with a double battle against two gym leaders and some exciting suspense with a new Pokémon coming to this world. I'm bringing back quite a few characters from the past so yay! Please read my **Author's Notes **for some updates.

Thanks **SinCityAssassin** for betaing this chapter.

Enjoy!

**Chapter 73:**

"Gahahaha! Don't sweat it, you kids did good job battling together," Crasher Wake said as he ruffled Damion's and Lucas' heads. After battling, the four had returned their Pokémon and were now having a small chat while the waiter/judge left to ready their table.

"Yeah," Volknor said nonchalantly, "You guys didn't suck too much."

"Volknor…" Crasher Wake sharply warned the bored gym leader.

"All right fine, you guys were… alright." Volknor muttered, though neither Lucas nor Damion heard his reluctant gesture. Damion was too busy having a session with Lucas about improving their tactics, though the poor guy was just lost in his words.

"I'm thinking that tomorrow, we should focus on your Muchlax's Blizzard attack. If we can increase the power and range…even if he doesn't have much in that field…maybe even…"

The words coming out of Damion's mouth just flew by Lucas as he just absently nodded to every detail.

"Is it really that hard to compliment someone?" Wake muttered.

"Well, I _am_ better than them. You know I hate lying, I wouldn't want to inflate the egos of children."

"You are such a narcissist," Crasher Wake said though he didn't sound too serious.

"Only when it comes to battling."

"Guys! GUYS!"

Everybody looked up to see Dawn yelling ecstatically and jumping up and down.

"Guys! The egg! It's… It's hatching!" Dawn's excitement drew all of their attention from above. She held up the container and sure enough, the egg was giving off a faint glow. As she climbed down, both her friends and the gym leaders came to watch what was happening.

The egg was shaking violently and soon shone so brightly that everybody around had to shield their eyes. When the light dissipated, the container was cracked open, and a tiny little creature was shift its body around …

"Togepi!" The little spiky head Pokémon chirped, it wiggled its arms like a cub that wanted its mother. Its arms and legs were small, its body encased in its own eggshell that was painted with small red and blue triangles.

"I wonder if we need to help get it out of its egg…" Lucas mused to himself.

"Oh, how cute!" Dawn exclaimed as the little Pokémon blinked its beady black eyes at Dawn.

"Togepiiii!" the little Pokémon happily shrilled, waddling towards her on the table.

"So, this is a Togepi. They're said to be very rare, at least that's what I heard," Crasher Wake recollected.

"Togepi…" Dawn took out her pink Pokedex. "The shell stores kindness and joy that is spread to others."

"Well, that's kind of lame," Damion said as he crouched down and stared inches away from the now terrified Togepi and rudely poked the Pokémon on its head. "So, can this thing even do anything?" Unbeknownst to him, that was the worst question to ask about a baby Pokémon.

"PRRRRRIIIIIIII!" the little Pokémon started bawling a high-pitched chirp at the top of its lungs. "PRRRIIIII!"

"Damion!" Dawn yelled furiously at the blond hair trainer. "When will you start thinking before saying anything?!"

"AUUUGGHHH! Make it stop! Make it stop! Make it stop!" Damion screamed, he pressed his hands hard against his ears. Lucas, on the other hand, had fainted from the sudden blast of sound.

"Hey there. Don't cry." Dawn said hurriedly as she hugged the little baby Togepi who continued to scream. She looked frantically around for help, but her company (one of them already unconscious) didn't really know how to take care of a child, much less a baby Pokémon.

"Alright, you see, Crasher Wake," Volknor explained dully in a voice that effortlessly cut through the loud noise. "This is why I don't like kids."

"Oh come on," Crasher Wake boomed, "It can't be that hard to get it to quiet down. There, there, little Togepi. Everything is going to be okay." Crasher Wake tried to make what appeared to be a silly face, but his large grin bared enough teeth to make him more intimidating than funny.

"PRRRRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!" Somehow the Togepi screeched even louder than before.

"Well, that certainly worked!" Volknor shouted at him sarcastically as he clasped his hands against his ears in the same fashion as Damion.

"BE QUIET! LIKE YOU'RE DOING ANYTHING TO HELP!" Crasher Wake shouted back.

"Floon?" A curious voice interrupted.

Momentarily distracted, everybody including Togepi, looked up at the direction of the sound and saw a Drifloon.

"Wait a minute, how did he get out?" Damion looked down to see Lucas's pokeballs had scattered and Damion's elbow hit one of them when he dropped himself into the floor in agony. "Well, what do ya kn-GRRRRK**!**"

Damion was once again holding his head in pain as the Togepi continued bawling its eyes out. The purple balloon Pokémon, somehow immune to the sound, cocked his head slightly to the side as it drifted towards Dawn. Its little string arms dangled just above Togepi's head. The baby Pokémon's cries immediately subsided as it looked up curiously. Togepi began to giggle as it tried to play with Drifloon's heart shaped ends of its string arms. Drifloon looked amused as well and started wiggling its arms around, playing with the baby.

"Oh wow, did not see expect that to happen," Damion muttered, removing his hands from his ears.

"I don't think any of us did," Volknor said, relieved that the noise was finally gone.

"Well aren't you a life-saver, little guy!" Crasher Wake beamed at the little Drifloon, who gushed with pride.

"All right then!" Dawn said excitedly. She took out her other two Poke balls and sent out her Prinplup and Buneary. The two Pokémon looked over curiously at and towered over the baby Pokémon. "Togepi, my name is Dawn. This is my team – Prinplup and Buneary. I hope we can become good friends." Togepi looked almost frightened until Dawn's two Pokémon immediately gathered around and started to coddle it. Togepi giggled happily in Dawn's arms.

"Great!" Dawn smiled, "Looks like everything is resolved."

"Are we done here?" Volknor yawned in boredom. "I'm still hungry. Let's get some more food."

"Food?" Immediately, Lucas shot up from the floor at the sound of that word. "Are we eating now?"

"Sheesh," Damion rolled his eyes as Lucas' Drifloon hovered over its trainer's head. "I can't believe you woke up just because of-actually no, I can believe it."

Lucas ignored him and went straight for the table. Despite losing the battle, Lucas could now eat to his content in the restaurant; food always tasted better after a workout.

…

_Somewhere north of Sinnoh late at night…_

"Yes, I'm on the boat. How many times do I have to repeat myself?" Daniel chattered at the Pokegear as he huddled inside of his fluffy jacket, wishing he were warmer. He was outside on deck, watching the ship sliced through the jet black waters.

The flakes of white snow falling from the sky would have been a beautiful sight if not for the bone-chilling temperature. But with Sunyshore City suffering some sort of serious power outage and Canalave City being used only for cargo ships, Snowpoint City was the only available area to travel to by sea in the Sinnoh region. What's worse was that the weather was so bad that Daniel was forced to switch ships midway and was now riding on a small and smelly fishing boat.

"Not until you're off of that boat and standing right in front of me," the voice replied back through the phone in Daniel's gloved hands. "And for crying out loud, you made me come all the way to Snowpoint City to come pick you up. If you hadn't missed your ride earlier, none of this would've happened."

"Don't blame me, something came up."

"And," the voice continued on, without hearing Daniel's excuse, "you still haven't explained to me what happened this whole time."

"Like I said, it's a long story."

"Well, I got hot cocoa in front of me. I got a thick, wooly blanket wrapped around me and I'm sitting next to a nice, warm fire. I'm in the mood for a good story."

"Did you say," Daniel gulped as though afraid to ask, "hot cocoa?" Daniel could feel his desire for something hot for the cold weather he was in.

"With just enough small marshmallows to make a 'smiley' face in my cup. Oh and did I mention the chocolate s'mores? And there are cookies, fresh from the oven. I think I'm going to have a bite right now."

Daniel whimpered in jealousy. The bitter air seemed to be chiller than before. "Now you're punishing me, aren't you Fuuta?"

"That's the plan," Fuuta munched from the other line as his hot cookie melted into his mouth into creamy deliciousness. Outside, there was a blizzard blowing, yet Fuuta felt nice and toasty inside of the lobby he was in. It was almost worth it to come all the way here just to tease poor Daniel.

Fuuta managed to get a reservation at the ski resort, which was filled with people who had come back early due to the weather and were chatting up. Fuuta noticed quite a few rather attractive girls; some of them were giggling on a red couch a couple of feet away from him. One of them gave a devious wink when she caught Fuuta's eye and the psychic trainer immediately grinned. Who knew girls could be so attractive even in thick winter clothing?

"But, this punishment is not going to compare to the one you'll get when you get here. Exactly where are you right now?"

"I don't know." Daniel's voice crackled through the phone Fuuta was using. "The captain said that it'll probably take all night. The weather is getting worse here."

"Well, have fun sleeping out there," Fuuta said, yawning and ready to go to bed. "Speaking of which, I'm getting all sleepy from all this food. I'll give you a call in the morning."

"Wait! Tell me more about the cooki-!" But Fuuta already hung up and snuggled in more into his blanket. He should head back up to his room but it was sooo cozy here and there were some people he would like to meet.

"Helloooo ladies," Fuuta flirted as he slid over to where the girls from earlier were. "My name is Fuuta and let's just start off that it's very much my pleasure to meet you all."

…

_Snowpoint Temple…_

Although almost everyone in Snowpoint City stayed inside their houses to shelter themselves and keep warm from the snowstorm, someone wasn't.

It was a pale teenager girl that wore black pigtails and a face graced with a warm and friendly expression and fiery energy that greatly contrasted her chilly environment. She was wearing a teal blue color sweater over her elbow length collared white shirt and a short brown mini-skirt. She had boots on and blue and white striped knee-high socks. Overall, by common sense this girl should be dead and frozen the entire time she was out there, but she didn't seem to be fazed by it. After all, she was Candice – the ice gym leader of Snowpoint City.

The blizzard was howling outside of the front door. The air made Candice's feel like they were pricked with little needles before exhaling out a white mist from her mouth. The temple was as cold as it looked; columns made of ice and stone as white as the snow that covered it. There was no source of light except for the lantern Candice was carrying. The entire temple was dark with the shadows swallowing up every room, but even so, a mysterious aura emanated from deep within.

As her responsibility as gym leader, Candice had been surveying the temple for the past few days. There were no changes since the last time she came here and everything was dark and cold like before. She had been here many times before when she had been training, but until recently she never came here at night. And though she wouldn't admit it out loud, the atmosphere kind of creep her out.

Candice took a quick glance around at the first floor. There wasn't really much to see but it was quiet. She decided to come back in the morning and explore more thoroughly when the weather was better. She walked back outside to the bitter cold and there waiting patiently before her was the guardian of the temple. She was wearing stark white, hooded robe and rather thick wool clothing underneath greatly and greatly contrasted to Candice's thin clothing. In the guardian's hand was also a lantern that glowed brightly, and the hood hid her face quite well.

"Gym leader Candice," the woman bowed respectively. Only a chosen few could enter the temple with the guardian's permission, one of them was Candice. "Anything suspicious?"

"It seems to be quiet in there for tonight," Candice said as the white flakes of snow pounded against her cheek like sharp needles. "I will come back tomorrow morning for another inspection. Will you be okay for tonight?"

"Of course. It is my duty to protect this temple. Should anything happen, I will let you know." After another deep bow, the lady closed the giant doors of the temple with a loud boom, though even the sound was muffled by the howls and wails of the night.

Candice respectful gave a goodbye and left the guardian to her post. The blizzard was still something fierce and a normal tourist would've been lost in heavy mists. Candice had no trouble at all though, she had lived here all her. She also had the help of some muscle.

"Come out Abomasnow!" A large, white, monstrous creature popped out of its Poke ball. Using its giant, forest green arms, it lifted Candice up onto its shoulder.

"Come on. There is one more place we need to check before we go back to the city," Candice told her Pokémon. It plowed through the snow with ease until the blizzard clouds swallowed them up into the whiteness of the night.

…

_Veilstone City…_

The Chairman had stayed up late into the night in his office. Again and again he watched the video of the press conference, that terrible meeting with the president of Galactic Enterprise still swirled around in his head. Being part of the Committee meant matters that did not pertain to pokemon were not within his jurisdiction so to speak, which meant the president of Galactic refused to cooperate in any helpful manner.

The news broadcasted that day mentioned a contained fire caused by an explosion at the Veilstone Warehouse facility. Faulty wiring in some of the more volatile equipment caused it to explode within the building. There were cases of burns and such but no one was killed.

"Luckily the fire was contained by the local city fire department. Had it spread, many more buildings would have caught on fire as well. Luckily it did not get any worse," the reporter said simply, as if that was all he could report.

"Yeah, sure," the Chairman muttered bitterly as he turned off the television. He had quite the feeling that there was more to the story than that, and even than the story they already had was just a cover up. He didn't have proof though, nor did the police, that is, the police "couldn't find any." Galactic Enterprise had donated much money and equipment to the police department in the past, the Chairman wouldn't be too surprised if the law enforcement were a tad reluctant to point fingers at their benefactors.

"More coffee, Mr. Chairman?" The man looked up and recognized a familiar face; one that bared an exhausted expression like his own.

"Yes, Cynthia, thank you." The blond haired Champion set a steaming cup on the desk and sat down in the chair opposite to him.

"Not a good day, is it?" The question was rhetorical of course; Cynthia had accompanied the Chairman the entire day.

The Chairman silently took a sip of the coffee before simply asking, "How are you?"

"Exhausted, and I think slightly numb. I haven't fully recovered from that battle with Jupiter," Cynthia said grimly as she moved her arms and knees around, which seemed to ache from the lack of rest and increased workload.

"I'm very sorry for making you take so many responsibilities."

"Don't worry," Cynthia said as she sipped her coffee. "Cooperating with you is part of my obligation as the Champion of Sinnoh." A quaint silence filled the room as they sipped their cups, until it was broken by a chirping sound.

"Oh, uh. That's mine," Cynthia said immediately as she took her Pokegear out. She was puzzled, who would be calling her so late at night? "Hello?" A loud muffling noise could be heard as and Cynthia's eyes widened with shock. "What?! Wait, why wasn't I notified? Okay. Alright. I see. Alright, I'll meet with him tomorrow then. Where can I find him...? Ok then. Yes, good night to you too." She set her gear down and slumped a bit in her chair, she was clearly too tired for this.

"Who was that?" the Chairman asked, concerned.

"Someone from Interpol."

"What?" the Chairman's jaw gaped wide enough that it almost touched the table. "I was told they couldn't interfere with any of the investigation because they had their hands full with an operation in Hoenn."

"Apparently, this man thinks otherwise. He wished to speak to you actually, but couldn't get a hold of you." The chairman blushed in embarrassment; his devices were all turned off to avoid the constant calls.

"Do you remember Tory?" It took a moment for the chairman to remember that name.

"Ah yes, that boy from Eterna City who claimed to obtain some documents of interest. What about him?"

"Let's just say, we have an appointment to meet with him tomorrow."

…

"Maylene, I want you to guard these two witnesses," Looker said, pointing to Tory and Leander. The two looked around awkwardly into the dojo gym and its beaten walls and wondered how this place would be considered a 'safe house'.

"Wait, you want me to take care of these two pipsqueaks?" Maylene asked, pointing to the two boys. She acted slightly cranky, having been up all day and trying to take care of the 'little' incident earlier. Cynthia wasn't kidding about the press being harsh.

"Who are you calling 'pipsqueaks'?!" Leander whined. He didn't like being called names, especially by a girl who was probably at least a full head shorter than he was. He gave more of a glance of the area to ignore her; although it was a huge improvement compared to the sewers from earlier, Leander noticed how… messy the place was – chipped wooden floors, tattered gym equipment. There wasn't anything strewn on the ground, but they were messily placed on shelves. It took all of his willpower not to put on his rubber gloves and start cleaning everything.

Tory looked rather disgruntled for a different reason. He kept shooting furious looks at Looker, who seemed oblivious to the piercing glares.

"No choice," Looker grunted to Maylene. "These are important informants. My men and I have to leave the area to meet up with someone else of great importance as well. That being said, I personally don't trust anybody here in this city at this moment. Since this is your city, I figured you should be in charge to take care of them. At least for the night."

"This isn't a hotel!" Terra, who was standing next to Maylene, exclaimed. The disgruntled young trainer had just finished his cleaning duties for the night when Looker suddenly barged in unannounced, claimed to be an Interpol officer, and demanded two rooms for these two random strangers.

Terra was about to kick them out personally when Maylene stepped in, who was followed by a sleepy, pajama clad Donavan. Having fallen asleep while standing up during the confrontation, Donovan didn't have much of an opinion on matter, except for the drool dripping out of his mouth.

"Why can't you guys bring those two along with you?" Maylene demanded, pointing to the two. Leander seemed highly offended by the rudeness the gym leader was giving, but she didn't care. She had a really lousy day today and she wasn't in the mood for more unwanted problems.

"Err, well, I've arranged for them to meet someone here tomorrow," Looker said hesitantly as though unsure of how much he could say without giving too much away. "That being said, the person _I_ have to meet is coming from somewhere far. And before you go on any further, this is for you to read." Looker handed over a piece of paper to Maylene. She immediately frowned as she continued to read, but didn't raise any more objections.

"Very well," Maylene sighed, her anger immediately evaporated. "Terra, let these two sleep at the guest facilities."

Terra gaped, "You can't be serious."

"There are enough futons for everyone to use." Maylene shrugged her shoulders in defeat. "Not like I have a choice, you know."

"Donovan is sleeping in the guest room right now. The room can't hold three people."

"Someone said my name?" Donovan asked unconsciously. Somehow he responded in his sleep.

"No big. Donovan will bunk with you," Maylene responded as though that settled the matter.

"No!" Terra exclaimed. "The last thing I want to do is bunk with this guy! Do you remember what happened last time?!"

"Zzzz… huh?" Donovan nodded his head in a rhythmic pattern as he dozed on and off.

"You can't be serious," Leander objected, shuddering with fear. Sleeping on a mat? On the floor of this messy gym? Who knew how much dust mites have been living on that floor?

"I rather sleep outside than in here," Tory grumbled.

"You're not the only one here who thinks you should either," Terra said darkly. The two gave a sort of glare at each other before looking away.

"Excellent," Looker said, despite the hostility around. "They will meet up with that person tomorrow on the scheduled time I had written down on that paper. And everybody, please be nice."

With that, the trench coated man left the gym. Everybody stared at each other; clearly agreeing that 'being nice' was not going to be on the agenda for tonight. Not surprisingly, Donovan had slumped to the floor by the end of the matter.

…

_Eterna City…_

Gardenia yawned out in exhaustion; it was late, yet she forced herself to watch the television. She stayed at Eterna City Committee Center; it had been a week since the meeting concerning Galactic Enterprise's Eterna Warehouse. She took a short break from her paperwork and rubbed her shoulders, wishing she could get the kinks out.

The building was nearly empty, and the pitch-black night outside wasn't making Gardenia feel any better. She could imagine those ghost Pokémon floating around and haunting this very building so vividly… which was probably why every single light in the room was on.

"Hey," Roark muttered as he sat down next to Gardenia. The gym leader almost jumped out of her chair by the sudden intrusion, her current anxiety fueled her need to scream.

"Roark?! W-What are you doing here?!" Gardenia exclaimed. Her voice sounded squeaky and frightened, which was obviously not what she was trying to go for.

"Got off of work and came here to finish up some paperwork. Notice the light coming from the lounge room and saw you. Figured you'd like some company," Roark shrugged. He took a sip of his coffee and grimaced. "Cripes this is nasty stuff, should've gotten a soda." He grabbed the remote and punched the volume button to make the televised reporter's voice softer. "The news is such a drag lately; I don't know why you watch this stuff."

"Wait, what work?" Gardenia asked suspiciously, ignoring Roark's comment, "Shouldn't you be back in Oreburgh?"

"The people trying to get through the rubble in Galactic Eterna Building were short on help, so I offered my services. Got my guys helping out, too. Didn't you get the memo? Heck, I was working here since day one."

Gardenia blushed in embarrassment. With so much going on, she was too busy cooped up indoors. It came to the point where she couldn't even have proper gym battles anymore. The growing list of angry trainers in queue almost made her want to hide under her bed and never come out.

"No, I've been busy with other stuff," Gardenia muttered.

"No surprise," Roark said. "Your paperwork load is much worse than mine and I haven't even started on it."

"Well _that's_ no surprise. You always try to find excuses to stay away from your duties."

"Hey," Roark pouted, "I would've done it sooner if it weren't for this manual work." Gardenia rolled her eyes in disbelief.

"Okay fine," Roark admitted, "I probably was out there more than I should've been working on the paper work. But we could've finished earlier if my dad agreed to come help us out over here. He has the best equipment. Ugh, that guy," Roark shook his head in disdain, "he's probably the laziest gym leader I've ever met."

"Well, he has his responsibilities with his city too," Gardenia pointed out. "Plus, he's too far away to make any travelling here any convenient."

"Well, we're almost done anyways, so it doesn't matter now. I'll be leaving in about two days. Have to make sure my gym doesn't go down in shambles either." Roark glanced at Gardenia, hoping for some sort of reaction, but she was interested in asking more questions.

"Did you find anything?"

"Pfft, I just move rocks; I wasn't in charge of analyzing anything. That's for the crime lab to figure out. But… If I did find anything, it was the bodies of those Pokémon." There was a bitter tone in Roark's voice.

"I'm sorry," Gardenia whispered. "Maybe if I was a better gym leader… this stuff wouldn't…"

"What are you sorry for!?" Roark snapped, "You weren't the one who did all that. SO quit blaming yourself for other people's crimes." Gardenia cringed at the sound of Roark's voice.

"This all happened under my watch." Gardenia could feel the emotions pouring out of her – ones she locked away in order to survive the ordeal. "I haven't been looking out for this town Like I should have, and… and I neglected my responsibilities as a gym leader. I'm not surprised that I'm being insulted by everyone."

"Look at me," Roark said sternly, his eyes pierced into Gardenia's frightened own, "I'm not even in my city to do my job, but I'm not neglecting my job to do the right thing. At least you stayed here, trying to fix the problem instead of running away. That's what being a gym leader is."

"But I'm scared," Gardenia was sniffling now. "I'm really, really scared."

"And that's totally normal. I'm scared too, you know."

"Huh? You, the thickheaded bravado guy?" Gardenia looked surprised. Roark didn't seem like the kind of guy who would admit something like that to anyone, especially to someone like her.

"Heh, yeah, just don't tell my dad. He'd kill me," Roark grinned and put his hand on her shoulder in an attempt to cheer his fellow gym leader up, "You think you're the only one who's scared? I think we're going up against something bigger than we could ever imagine. But guess what? You're not alone. We're not alone. We'll all get through this. Trust me." There was a moment – a moment of comfort. Gardenia felt the weight on his shoulders suddenly lifted. The clock chimed and the two gym leaders slightly jumped out of their seats in surprise.

"Well, err, I gotta get finished with those papers," Roark murmured as he got up hesitantly, "You take care of yourself."

"Yeah… sure," Gardenia mumbled as she hurried back to do her own work. Roark was about to leave the room when he stopped abruptly.

"Hey."

"Yeah?" Gardenia looked up.

"For the record, I think you're doing a fine job as a gym leader."

Roark left grinning, leaving Gardenia to ponder over his words.

…

_Iron Island…_

The breeze carried the scent of saltwater near the coast. Riley remained outside of Byron's cabin, a cabin that was positioned on a Cliffside near Iron Island. He listened to the crash of the waves against the rocks as he gazed at the sky. Cloud wisps dotted everywhere, but once in a while Riley could make out the shape of the moon before it was swallowed up again. Despite this, stars twinkled and glittered across the night sky like paint splattered on a canvas. A dim light could be from a cargo ship heading its way towards Canalave City.

Inside the cabin, Alex, the mysterious Lucario Pokemorph, was asleep after a long day of intense training. Since he came, Alex had many fitful dreams and Riley could hear the sharp yelps and mumbles the boy was making. He'd never remember what those dreams where however. Riley decided to increase the training. Thanks to this, the boy was too exhausted to even have nightmares.

A light directed at the island shook Riley out of his Zen-like state of mind. Feeling goose bumps on the back of his neck, Riley reflexively used his Aura to scan the surrounding area. As soon as the light came into his field of perception, Riley recognized who was emitting the aura immediately. His body relaxed as the small boat came closer and closer.

"Ahoy there!" A rugged, purple-haired man jumped out of his small motorboat as soon as it docked safely and began hiked up the rocky mountainside with ease. With a massive shovel in one hand and a lantern in the other, one would've mistaken him for a gold digger. Near him was a Shieldon, who looked unhappy and perhaps annoyed with his presence.

"Byron? What are you doing here? Shouldn't you get ready for your meeting with the researchers back in the city?" Riley asked, surprised, but not displeased at the arrival of a good friend.

"Bah, it's just a science convention. Not my style. Besides, it's tomorrow. I swung by to see you, figured we could talk a bit like the good old days."

"Sure," Riley said. Byron immediately plopped down next to him. Shieldon begrudgingly sat next to Riley, but refused to look at the gym leader.

"I take it your friendship with the Shieldon hasn't been going too well."

"I swear, I just can't communicate with the little bugger. You seem good at this stuff though, huh?" Byron looked around and noticed something missing. "Say, where's that Lucario of yours?" Byron looked around for the enigmatic Pokémon.

"Inside the cave, he's been doing a quick security check in the caverns."

"Are you sure it's okay to leave him by himself?"

"He's fine," Riley said, "Lucario can take care of himself, how is Roark for that matter?"

"My son?" The gym leader scoffed, "Lazy as usual. Just the other day he told me the other day that he had so much paper that he hasn't even started on. What is it with youths these days?"

"Well, what about you? You don't seem to be the type to bother with that sort of thing either."

"Me?" Byron scoffed again. "My secretary can take care of it. You know I can't deal with the business end of the job."

Byron let out a booming laugh while Riley rolled his eyes.

"Anyways, about Alex…" Byron said slowly, handing Riley a bottle of water. "How is he?"

"Doing better," Riley said, sighing in exhaustion. Riley drank the first half of the bottle and drenched his head with the rest, the water from his haired dripped to the ground as he let a sigh of content before continuing. "He's improved a lot, both in health and in strength. I'm still amazed at his ability. Aura powers are… rare for humans, to say that much." Riley didn't sound too happy about it, in fact he sounded a bit more concerned.

"That's good." Bryon took out another bottle of water and guzzled down a good amount of it. He didn't notice the tone in Riley's voice. "Looks like everything is going just fine for him."

"But I have a question," Riley paused for a slight moment, "where do we go from here?"

"What? What do you mean from here?"

"Don't play dumb with me, Byron," Riley said seriously now. "I know Cynthia wanted to get Alex back on his feet and to test his strength, but then what? You can't expect him to be accepted back into society the way he is. He'd be shunned out as an outcast in a heartbeat, and then what? Would he be forced to live life as a hermit?"

"It worked out well for you I could say."

"This isn't funny, Byron," Riley said, slightly angered that his friend wasn't taking this as seriously as he needed to be.

"Look I understand where you're going with this," Byron defended, "But I seriously don't know how to deal with this stuff. I mean, you just told me he's okay."

"The kid may look fine physically, but mentally, he's not prepared. He can't even remember what had happened to him. I don't think he can deal with the pressures of the outside world without some sort of rehabilitation."

"It's not that bad," Byron shrugged his shoulders. "I mean he's not that different from us, isn't he? Well, he's kind of scrawny and all but that's normal for teenage boys, right?"

"Byron, the child has Lucario ears sticking out of his head and he shoots aura blasts from his hands. I'm pretty sure that qualifies as being 'different'," Riley shook his head in amazement, "you might be knowledgeable with ancient rocks, but you're terrible at knowing the differences between what people believe is normal and what they believe isn't."

"And is that a bad thing? I thought you were against this whole idea of 'being normal'. I mean, you don't exactly fit the bill," Byron demanded, but Riley continued on.

"Worst case scenario, Alex will be forced back into a tube and scientists begin to dissect his body for study."

"Not if I have a say in it," Byron growled.

"It wouldn't matter," Riley continued as he sadly gazed into the night sky. "If we don't think about the long term, Alex's fate will be out of our hands. And when that happens, who knows what future the boy will have."

**Author's Note**

So we know now what happened with pretty much a good deal of everybody else. Not much suspense, but it is nice to bring back some old and new gym leaders.

Oh and some bad news. All of the chapters that I have typed and saved for upcoming updates have been lost and I'm back to square one. Please be patient. My midterms are almost over so I should be able to have more free time.

Anyways, BW2 came out recently in English. Anybody thinks it's a decent game or better than BW?

Also, those who live in the east coast of the US, please be safe. I, too, have been through enough hurricanes to know that they're not something to take lightly.

Thanks for reading and I'll see you in the next chapter.

**-JapanDreamer**


	77. Welcome to Pastoria City!

**Disclaimer:**

Hey guys! Well, what do you know?! Looks like **JD** isn't actually dead yet and is back with another update!

And guess what? I've decided to do a massive update. Of course, I couldn't update all of my stories at the same time, but the other stories will be updated very soon.

Check out my **Author Notes** for some stuff and news if you're interested.

Thanks **SinCityAssassin42** for betaing this chapter.

Enjoy!

**Chapter 74:**

"Come on my pupil, wake up!" Crasher Wake barged into the room, unannounced. It was the morning after the incident at the restaurant. Since then they group had decided to spend the night at the hotel before continuing on their journey; this was, of course, after they ate through five entrees, ten different desserts, and accumulating a bill that could give a normal person a heart attack. Dawn was the only one of the group who learned that it was possible to feel like throwing up just by watching someone or some people eat.

Dawn and Lucas grunted as they slowly rose from their separate beds, wincing at the sudden burst of sunlight in the room. Damion was already up and moving in front of his new instructor. Always an early riser, he had more energy than ever.

"Good Morning, Master!" Damion exclaimed, bowing low. "I hope you slept well."

_Master?_ Dawn looked surprise. _Since when has Damion show respect to anyone?_

"HA! Early to rise now, aren't ya? I like it!" Damion happily beamed at the approval.

"What time is it?" Dawn groaned as she searched the bedside table for the clock. Lucas had already flopped back onto the bed and continued snoring. Right next to Dawn was her baby Togepi, snoring away as well. _Finally._

On and off during the night, Togepi had continued to cry, waking Dawn up multiple times to care for it. Lucas and Damion slept through the ordeal and were clearly in no shape to help at all. So much yelling… Dawn was too tired to holler and be cranky anyhow. She was going to keep Togepi in the Pokeball for most of the journey instead of carrying it around like she had planned earlier. "And why are there so many people in here?"

"Wake," Volknor came in as well, yawning. His usual messed up spiky hair was even messier than usual though at least he was dressed. "Why are we up so early?"

"I have to get back to my gym. I have quite a bit of stuff to take care of, not to mention I have to get my new student to work."

"Fine, I'm heading back to Sunyshore anyways," Volknor said with another yawn.

"You're going back?" Crasher Wake looked suspicious.

"Of course I am," Volknor said. "Even if I did blackout my city, doesn't mean I'm not going to take responsibility for it in the end. I'll need to talk with the mayor and the chairman about the situation. Gym leader's duty, after all." He said nonchalantly, leaning against the way.

Crasher Wake grinned back at him. Finally, Volknor was starting to act more responsible, even with the disproportionate amount of effort to steer him in the right direction.

"Well, I'll definitely see _you_ again," Damion exclaimed, pointing at the sleepy gym leader.

"Huh?" Volknor quipped, looking over at Damion as if he only just noticed him. "Why's that, kid?"

"Once I get seven badges, I have the right to beat you in a gym challenge!" A long silence filled in the room as the gym leader processed the implication; he chuckled at Damion.

"HEY! What's so funny?!"

"Like you can even get seven badges where you are now. You couldn't even beat me in a doubles battle."

"What was that?!" Damion exclaimed, furious at Volknor's mocking. "Just watch me! With this training, I'll defeat you in no time!"

"Sure kid," Volknor said, still chortling. "Anyways," he turned away, "I'll see you later, Crasher Wake. Good luck babysitting." He left silently without another word.

"What's his problem?" Dawn yawned. "He really doesn't seem like an approachable gym leader." She went over to Lucas' bed and tried to shake the sleepy trainer awake.

"Jerk." Damion stuck his tongue out at the door.

"He's a good man, I assure you," Crasher Wake said to the two doubtful trainers. "Now get ready in twenty minutes, kids. We have some traveling to do!"

….

_Hearthrome City…_

It was morning in this nice city. People were going about their usual daily business. Fantina was going through incredible amounts of paperwork, just like every other gym leader had to go through right now. Of course, Fantina was one of those gym leaders who'd prefer to put it off as long as possible, with poor results. Along with her report to the chairman of the situation with that young lady and her kidnapped blond hair friend, she had to finish up with the work involving Pokémon Contest incident.

"Fantina," Johanna knocked on the door before coming in. "How's it going?"

"I've never had suffered zrough so much paperwork." Fantina's thick accent laced through her complaints. "Zis chairman is so cruel to moi! I could only imagine what Maylene is going zrough!"

"That's because you never do paperwork until the last minute," Fantina's blue hair friend sighed. "If you had done this stuff before the contest, you would only need to be concern about writing that report."

Fantina pouted but then noticed Johanna was carrying her suitcase and bags. "What's with the bags?"

"I'm leaving today, remember?" Johann said looking at Fantina with a critical eye. "I told you a couple of hours ago."

"What? But we 'ave never properly retrouve! I made plans with you and Keira. Zere is shopping and eating at zat new ice cream shop…" Johanna sighed sadly and shook her head.

"Keira has to leave to get ready for another Pokémon Contest and I have to go now. My husband and Professor Rowan are at a science convention in Canaclave. I need to meet up with him by tomorrow."

"Tu? In a science convention?" Although Fantina had seen Johanna in the spotlight of glamorous parties and such when she was a famous coordinator, the gym leader couldn't see her friend in something as boring with… science nerds…

"Yes, it's a big deal this year, and there's also going to be a very important formal party. I promised my husband I would meet up with him after the contest."

"What about Dawn? I thought you were going to go Veilstone to see her?"

"Actually, I got a message from her this morning. She left Veilstone already and wasn't near the site of the fire incident when it started." Johanna was hesitant though. Although her daughter didn't sound like she was lying, Dawn didn't sound like she was telling the entire truth either

Fantina sighed dejectedly as she turned to look back at the nasty pile of paperwork. She stuck out her tongue in disgust. "I 'ate this job."

"Speaking of your job, what are you planning to do with Miss Ashe?"

"Ashe?"

"That young girl whose friend was kidnapped? I think his name was Ven."

"Oh yes, zose two. I 'ave to write a report to ze chairman, but she is under my protection until I 'ave a response."

"She's been here for more than two days; what about the kidnapped boy?"

"En fait…" Fantina suddenly fall silent and motioned Johanna to come closer, " I 'ave received a call from chairman, le petit Ven iz okay. But I am not to do anything at ze moment."

"What?" Johanna gave a gasp but Fantina immediately made shushing noise. Luckily, no one else was around. Johanna immediately lowered her voice back into a whisper. "Wait, why?"

"Don't know," Fantina shrugged, "But it seems zat chairman is merely relaying the message from someone else. I zink this person shall come to meet Ashe later."

"Do you know who this person is?"

"Non," Fantina shook her head, "But ze chairman said that when I see him, I would know."

…

_Pastoria City…_

"Welcome to Pastoria City! My little hometown!"

It certainly wasn't anything Dawn expected. Despite the sunny weather, the ground was soft as if the area had gone through a week's worth of rain instead of a day's. The houses seemed thick, small, and sturdy – very practical for the environment. Overgrown grass was everywhere and the area seemed eerily empty.

"That's strange… where is everybody?" Dawn asked out loud. The way that Crasher Wake talked about the people from his town, Dawn expected some sort of huge parade in his honor every time he came home. The gym leader looked confused as well.

"Maybe we can ask those people over there if they know where everybody went," Lucas said, pointing over to a huge crowd in front of a government building waving signs. They were all wearing beige color t-shirts, stamped with pictures of tall grass and brown mud. In the front was some weird looking dark violet colored frog. None of them looked happy and were screaming out their words to some annoyed woman on the platform with a large banner that read – The Beginning of New Homes. Behind the platform was a bright yellow bulldozer and several uneasy construction workers.

_"Stop the pollution!"_

_"Give us back our marshes!"_

The chanting continued on and on in a same repeated pattern.

"What are they yelling about?" Dawn asked.

"I think it's something about marshmallows or mash potatoes?"

"Only you can assume this is all about food, Lucas." Damion sighed at Lucas's obliviousness to the situation. He wanted to hit Lucas for the comment, but didn't want to risk a bad impression in front of his hero. Wake, however, focused on the situation and frowned at the sight.

"Ah, those darn blasted fools! Excuse me kids. Gotta take care of something." With that, Crasher Wake left the three standing there.

"People of Pastoria City!" a lady in front of the microphone stated. Judging from the official looking pin on her suit, Dawn assumed she was the mayor. "The marshes aren't being destroyed by the construction work. We are simply removing small parts of it in order to-!"

"Oh sure, when Grumpigs can fly! If we give up one part of the marsh, you guys will end up taking away all of it!" Everybody roared in agreement. The situation looked bad, the crowd seemed completely mutinous.

"Marshes? They're arguing about marshes?" Damion looked incredulous. "Are the marshes here that important?"

"Actually, the marshes here are revered as a regional landmark," Dawn explained, not looking away from the scene, "not only because the ecosystem of Pokemon that live within it is entirely unique, but also because they're one of the oldest natural wetlands left in Sinnoh."

"Wow Dawn," Lucas said amazed. "You sure know a lot. I mean, you even know a lot about that hotel we stayed at."

"T-thanks…" Dawn stuttered slightly at Lucas' compliment.

"Ahem. So," Damion coughed, trying to remind the two that he was still there, "define unique."

A bit too red to talk, Dawn took out her pink Pokedex and started to fiddle around with it. After the recent battle at Veilstone, Dawn had decided to try and use her Pokedex more often, despite the fact that she was a coordinator and not a trainer. So far, she's been learning more about Pokémon attack strategy than before when she only studied historical and demographic facts on the Sinnoh region along with contest appeals.

"Here." Dawn showed a purple-blue bipedal frog with shifty eyes and orange pouch-like cheeks, the sort of face only a mother could love from a few feet away. "This is a Croagunk, found only here in the Marsh."

"That's the Pokémon on their shirts… Doesn't look all that special if you ask me," Damion said, eyeing the frog with suspicion.

"If you say so," Dawn shrugged her shoulders, though personally she had to agree with Damion, Croagunk weren't very cute in her opinion and didn't seem to be contest material. Still, she didn't really know much about this Pokémon from early research. "But the Pokedex does say that it has certain abilities that make it special."

"Like what?"

"Erm, it doesn't specify," Dawn said, reading the data. "I would actually need to see or catch the Pokémon to record more data."

At that precise moment, loud whooping and hollering erupted from the crowd. Lucas, Damion, and Dawn turned to spot to their shock and horror that Crasher Wake had snatched the megaphone from the mayor and was screaming into the device.

"I swear that as gym leader of this town, I will find a way to preserve our marshes! I will never let my people doooooown!" Wake extended his hand into the air and the crowd seemed to go berserk with excitement as they carried off their 'hero' from the platform.

"Crasher Wake! Crasher Wake!" The crowd slowly moved paraded towards the town, clearly celebrating for the return of their missing hero. They stopped at the only bar in town and all crowded in. The area was suddenly deserted again, leaving only the disheveled woman and construction staff.

"Seriously, why does everybody listen to _that_ man and not me? I'm elected for a reason…" the mayor muttered, slightly frustrated by how things turned out. She then motioned the workers to follow her. "Come on, we need to work out some of the details on the construction." With that, she was gone as well.

"So, he forgot about us," Dawn groaned in frustration. "Why am I not surprised?"

"Don't make fun of Master!" Damion retorted. Dawn merely rolled her eyes.

"I think I should go take a nap. All that time taking care of Togepi last night really drained me."

"You can't fall asleep now!" Damion exploded. "We should wait for Crasher Wake!"

"Why can't I sleep then if all we're doing is waiting?"

"Is there anything we can do? Something fun? Guys?" Lucas interrupted. He clearly didn't want to have to go through another set of bickering and fights.

"You know," Dawn took out a small guidebook from her white bag now. "I got this from the hotel," Dawn explained as she flipped to the page with the picture of the marshes. "There is a Safari Zone here where you can catch some of the unique marsh Pokémon. The money is used to help preserve the environment."

"Catch Pokémon? In a protected place?"

"Doesn't make sense," Dawn shrugged her shoulders, "But it's a tourist attraction, so we can check out. We might even see one of those rare and unique Pokémon."

"Well, in that case," Lucas grinned. "Let's go over there."

"Wait," Damion protested and whined, "what about Crasher Wake?"

"Well, he is busy at the moment," Dawn said, pointing to the direction of the bar where it seemed to be really lively. There were sounds of glass breaking and jolly singing of Crasher Wake's theme song that Crasher Wake had even taught them yesterday. "I'm sure he won't miss us for a couple of hours."

…

_Safari Zone…_

"The place is gross," Dawn sighed; she trudged through the mud that went up to her knees, clearly regretting her suggestion to come here. The Safari Zone did not allow trainers to carry their Pokémon with them in the marshes, so they had to leave them at the front desk. It was a good decision though, considering Togepi probably couldn't to handle such terrain. So instead, Dawn had only a bag of "bait" and 20 Safari Balls that could be used to catch Pokémon. Damion had already run off, clearly not interested in sticking together. He actually seemed more hyped about this compared to Dawn and Lucas. Surprisingly, Lucas decided to go off on his own as well. He seemed to want to try and become more independent like Damion. This disappointed Dawn slightly, but boys will be boys.

"Good thing I listened to those ladies and got into another change of clothes at least," Dawn sighed again but this time in relief. She had on a giant pair of blue overalls and rubber boots. On her head was a pair of goggle to help protect her eyes from flying mud and bugs. Damion and Lucas were also wearing outfits similar to hers so hopefully, they wouldn't get messy. So far, she didn't find any Pokémon that piqued her interest. Then again, she was more exploring than searching to begin with. She struggled to get out of the mud and reach solid ground and it took quite a while.

"OH!" Dawn noticed a small green bud Pokémon popped out of the tall grass. The little Pokémon gave a cute yawn as it allowed the sunlight to shine on its body. "Aren't you a darling?!" She took out her Pokedex to obtain data about this Pokémon. "A Budew… hmm, sensitive to cold temperature and its bud will bloom in sunlight." She took out the army green colored Safari ball. "Okay, I can do this…" Throwing it as far as she could, Dawn tried to aim at the Budew but she missed the mark and the ball instead landed in a lake of mud.

"Budew!" the little Pokémon freaked out and quickly escaped into tall grass before Dawn could attempt again.

"Darn!" Dawn sighed disappointedly at her failure. She needed to improve her throwing arm if she wanted to go and catch a Pokémon here. She noticed that her Safari ball was only slightly submerged in the mud. Walking over and leaving muddy boot prints behind her, she reached down to pick up a Safari Poke ball just when… PSHHHH! Mud flew vertically upward like some sort of geyser.

"EEKKK!" Dawn fell backward and landed on her behind. When she saw what caused the sudden explosion, Dawn screamed again. "AHHH! Monster!"

"Who are you calling a monster?" the mud man said, sounding angry. Dawn blinked and realized that it was actually a boy, looked about her age too, in a similar attire Dawn was wearing. He was completely covered in so much sludge from the mud he was wading in that he ended up looking like a creature straight out of a horror film. Dawn couldn't even tell what color the guy's hair was.

"Oh. Hi, I didn't know there were other people here." The boy removed the goggles from his face to reveal dark brown eyes that blinked with slight apprehension.

"Well, umm, I dropped that," Dawn pointed to the Safari ball that was still in the mud.

"Oh my bad." The guy scooped up the item and held it out for Dawn. "Here you go. My name is Will," the guy introduced himself. "What's yours?"

"My name is Dawn. Nice to meet you." Dawn didn't hold out her hand though, and eyed William's mud-covered hand with an equal amount of apprehension.

"Ah," Will noticed Dawn's look and quickly tried to find something in his pocket to clean himself up. He failed. "Sorry, I was running away from this crazy Pokémon and tripped into this deep mud pile. Good place to hide though and held my breath as long as I could."

"Crazy Pokémon?"

"Yeah, I would've battled it to save myself from taking another bath, but you know the rules. Only wild Pokémon allowed in this area." Will climbed out of the swamp pit and tried to wipe the mud off his arm and face. "I guess it's still rampaging out here."

"Rampaging?... Oh no!" Dawn's eyes widened as she realized the implications of this.

"Don't worry," Will continued calmly despite the ordeal he had went through, "I don't think it's in this area anymore. We might need to go back and notify the—"

"No, it's not that. My friends are also in this park! We need to-!"

Dawn was interrupted by a horrified scream in the far away distance.

_"__**AHHHHHHH!**__"_

…

By all accounts, Damion was very frustrated. After a good ten minutes, he still hadn't come across any good Pokémon. He was hoping for some strong Pokemon to appear in front of him, but he couldn't find anything. In fact, he didn't see much of any kind of Pokémon the entire time.

_Where are all these Pokémon that the Safari lady promised?_ Unlike Dawn, he didn't mind the mud too much; in fact, mud-related bets were probably the only ones he could win against Dawn back when they were younger.

Speaking of Dawn, what was up with her and Lucas? Although he was hyped up with his new training with the legendary Crasher Wake, Damion couldn't help but noticed throughout their travel to Pastoria City that Dawn and Lucas kept close together. Dawn and Lucas, being obsessed with cooking, were discussing about Poffin making since it played a large part in the Contest. They were discussing things like berries, types of flavors that would be effective, and other things.

Not only that, but because Dawn's Buneary knew Ice Beam, Dawn suggested that Muchlax could learn from the little bunny Pokémon on how to utilize ice attacks released orally. They even started to make some sort of schedule of how much practice they could do every day.

Damion suspected that there was something else going on between the two than just talking about Pokémon Contest and cooking though. He noticed how Lucas looked kind of… well, happy. Not the one that Lucas has when he was eating or sleeping. It was something else that Damion couldn't put his finger on.

Damion was the best out of the two when it came to battling, and he would obviously be perfect to teach Dawn about Pokémon battles and such, but after everything that had been happening and now that he was going to be busy training with Crasher Wake, it was up to Lucas now to hold that responsibility. Although he didn't want to admit it, Damion felt like he was now the loner of the group. And it felt terrible…

Out of frustration, Damion kicked some of the marsh's mud though the tall grass, which it didn't do much to relieve his annoyance.

"Croagggunkkkk."

_Huh?_

Damion peered over the grass he kicked at, wondering what that low croaking sound was and looked down; a purple frog squatting down and staring back at him with its beady eyes. Damion recognized it from Dawn's Pokedex.

"Oh… you're a Croagunk," Damion said finally at the motionless frog. The Pokémon responded by expanding and then deflating its orange cheeks. It stood completely still, with the exception of its breathing. The continued staring started to creep Damion out a little. "Okay… well, see you later," Damion turned quickly to leave, not taking any more of his time with the Pokemon.

After taking a couple of steps, Damion paused for a moment after hearing another airy croak and took a look back. The Croagunk remained squatting, but the distance between them didn't change; the thing was following him.

"Is there something you want?"

"Croagggunkkkk."

And that was all it said, just staring and breathing.

_Yeah, this conversation was getting nowhere._

_"__**AHHHHHHH!**__"_

"What the-?" Damion jerked up by the sound. Somebody screamed and it sounded a lot like…

"LUCAS!"

**Author's Notes**

Hmm, did not see that coming huh? So, meet Will – **Dreadly Rise**'s OC. He'll be an interesting sort of character to write about.

All right, **big news!** I noticed this just recently, but I see that stories can now have a 'picture' that can go along with it. If anybody is interested and love drawing, I would like to have some 'fan art' (I really don't know what to call it) that could be good for the cover picture, let me know! :D

So, for those who are curious why it has taken me so long to update, what happened was that I had this massive planning of updates for the holidays and planned this out for two months. Then about a month ago, I lost the data for all of the chapters I had worked on. Frustrated, I went through an extreme writer's block and just couldn't bring myself to write (that and school).

It was a dark, dark time. Lol. But during winter break, I buckled down hard and found my passion to write again. Thank you all for still sticking by my readers.

On other news, who is looking forward to the 'first' 3D Pokémon game (I say 'first' loosely for a reason) – X and Y? Out of all the three starter Pokémon designs, I like the grass one the most. Opinions? I am surprise that they're now making the games more 3D. I mean the BW2 games still mostly resembled the older generations.

Anyways, moving on. School is starting back for me so updates are still sporadic.

Happy belated holidays to all and I will see you in the next chapter.

**-JapanDreamer**


	78. Unforseen Chain of Events

**Disclaimer: Don't own Pokémon**

Hey guys. Well, it has been a while since I last updated. But guess what? There are two updates – this story and Reverse Time! WHOO!

All right, I'm pretty sure some of you guys notice that this story has a new cover picture by Ashley Eon. I would like to thank her for such a wonderful picture. Of course, if anybody else would like to contribute some wonderful art as well, let me know.

Spoiler Alert: Prepare some tissue boxes. Lucas will no longer be traveling with Dawn and Damion… Enjoy the chapter!

Thank you SinCityAssassin for betaing this chapter.

**Chapter 75:**

"Lucas!" Damion ran towards the sound. Despite the thick and heavy mud and the tall marsh grasses, Damion didn't stop until he finally reached the clearing where the sound was coming from. What he saw made him stop dead in his tracks.

"AHHHH! HELP!"

Lucas was struggling against some wild plant that dangled from a tree trunk and had wrapped its vines around him. Lucas was being dragged into what appeared to be a large circular and flat mouth with two rows of sharp teeth.

"W-what?! LUCAS!"

"That's a Carnivine!" Damion turned around to the sound of the voice and saw an equally horrified Dawn who had her Pokedex out. Behind her was a guy who Damion didn't recognize, but looked as though he had just finished swimming in the marsh. "It attracts its prey with sweet smelling saliva and then eats them alive!"

"Oh man, that's the crazy Pokémon I was talking about that was chasing me," said the guy with the mud suit. "Oh my GOSH! I-is that a PERSON?!" He just noticed Lucas who continued to scream for help.

"Damn it!" Damion, getting over his initial shock, reached for his belt, but found out that his Poke balls were gone. Realization hit him when he remembered the rules of the Safari Zone.

"Dawn! I don't have my Pokémon!"

"Me neither!" Dawn replied in a high panicky voice. It was a rather obvious statement since no one had their own Pokémon. _Ohhh, why did I suggest to go here in the first place?_

"HELP!" Lucas screamed again. Damion and Dawn each grabbed one of Lucas' arms and tried to pull the boy away from the jaws of death. Unfortunately, Carnivine had a really strong grip and was dragging Dawn and Damion toward it.

This was bad; Dawn could feel her boots sinking deeper into the mud and her grip on Lucas' arm was slipping. "What now?!"

"All of you guys! Duck!" Dawn turned and noticed Will was already bent low and had scooped up a huge glob of mud. "Take this!" Will threw the stuff as fast and as far as he could.

SPLAT! The mud hit the green Pokémon's eyes and it screeched loudly, not in pain but in shock, causing it to loosen its grip. Lucas was flung towards Dawn and Damion, who were also flung backward; all of them landing into a shallow puddle of mud,

"Ouch! Run!" Lucas, Dawn, and Damion got up and scattered as fast as they could. Carnivine snarled angrily as it watched its prey escape. Its vines weren't quick enough, and with another hiss of anger, it targeted Will who was slowly realizing the predicament he was now in.

"Oh shoot. I thought the mud would make it run away. AHHHH!" This time, it was Will trying escape from the dangerous Pokémon. It let out a Vine Whip attack and tripped the trainer to the ground. Now that Damion had gotten a good look, he saw that Carnivine was some sort of Venus fly trap plant Pokémon. Its beady eyes looked hungrily as it opened its mouth wide at the petrified Will. The Pokémon's pink tongue hung out in the air with anticipation.

"WILL!" Dawn screamed in horror.

"YO! Idiot!" Damion copied Will's attempt to distract the Pokémon, but this time, Damion threw one of his Safari ball at the wild Pokémon. The blond trainer hoped at the very least that if they couldn't stop the Pokémon then he could at least catch it. Distracted, the grass Pokémon found itself being swallowed into the ball in a flash of red light.

Finally, the area was filled with peace and quiet. Will slowly backed away as far as possible from the Safari ball that was now twitching on the ground. Then it stopped.

"Phew," Will sigh in relief as he tried to calm his heart down, "That was a close one."

He spoke to soon. The Safari ball suddenly opened again, releasing white light. Once it faded, Carnavine was standing tall and angrier than ever.

"Oh shoot, not again!" Will turned to run, but Carnavine had lost interest in him and was more focused on the one who had the nerve to try and capture it.

Carnivine turned to Damion, who realized faster what was going on and quickly turned and ran toward the tall grass. He was planning to hide there and take the Pokémon by surprise. But who could've thought that Pokémon would be able to run (wait, it doesn't have legs… jump was the better word) so fast?

"What are you doing Damion?!" Dawn couldn't believe how things were turning from bad to even worse. "Get away!" Dawn tried to copy the same tactic as Damion but her throwing skills were not up to par and she ended up missing.

Carnivine sprung into the air and sky dive toward Damion's location. It opened its mouth and …

"DAMION!"

SNAP!

Something from the tall grass jumped in front of Carnivine and punched the Pokémon's mouth shut, causing it to chomp down on its waggling tongue instead of Damion. Carnivine slammed to the ground and screamed and flailed from the throbbing pain.

"Croagunkkkkk." After that dramatic appearance, the Pokémon sat there and merely breathed through its orange sac cheeks.

"What the-? What's going on?" Dawn looked incredibly startled at the sudden change in events. And she wasn't the only one.

"It's a Croagunk," said Damion. He was wondering if it was the same one he encountered earlier.

"Yes, I can see that," Dawn said, remembering the picture of the frog on her Pokedex, "But what is it doing here?"

"Maybe it lives here?"

"I know that Lucas! I was wondering why it decided to stop Carnavine."

"So you're saying that you didn't want it to?"

"No! That's not what I meant either."

"Umm, I think its talking to that Carnivine," Will interrupted. After almost being eaten, he looked remarkably calm now as he pointed toward the two wild Pokémon who seemed to be communicating with each other.

"Hisss!" The Carnivine was making some angry gestures and opened its mouth wide as though to prove it could engulfed Croagunk's body whole.

The frog Pokémon didn't really move, but it must have done something because Carnivine looked even angrier.

The frog Pokémon jumped onto Caravine. Immediately, the Pokémon hissed as it jostled Croagunk around who was hold on to its dear life. It raised one of its arms and the hand started to glow a bright purple. It smacked the Caravine straight between its eyes.

"Grahhhh!" Caravine crashed to the ground and screamed in pain again. Croagunk elegantly jumped off and immediately sat on its haunches again.

"What just happened?" This time it was Will who was gaping in shock.

"That's Poison Jab," Damion said, quickly looking up in his Pokedex. "Effective against a grass-type like Caravine."

"No, I know that! I was wondering why a wild Pokémon is helping us."

"Wait, I'm confused," Lucas interrupted. "Do we want Croagunk to help us or not?"

"OF COURSE WE DO!" Everybody shouted back.

"I was just asking…" Lucas mumbled, looking miserable now.

Damion was curious though. Why did that Croagunk just suddenly decide to help out?

Croagunk actually stood now and slowly walked over to the beat up Carnavine. The grass Pokémon shrunk away in fear and quickly bounced away, screeching (Damion could only guess it was cursing at them) as it left.

"Phew," Dawn wiped her forehead despite getting herself cover in more mud. "That… was a close one."

"I'll say," Will agreed, "I can't believe we manage to get out of that one. Though the Safari people must be relieved. Imagine the paperwork from three kids getting eaten alive by wild Pokémon on a reservation."

"Anyways, Lucas. Why did Carnivine attack you Lucas?"

"Oh, it's probably because of these…" Lucas pulled out from his pockets and in his outstretched hands…

"Berries?!" Damion gaped at the color display of fruits in Lucas' hands – Pecha Berry, Oran Berry, Bulk berry, Cheri Berry, etc. "Where did you get these?"

"From our travels. I've been gathering them since the beginning." Lucas looked puzzled at Damion's question.

"This WHOLE time?!" Could this be the reason why Lucas was always lagging behind when it came to traveling?

"Well, if I want to make Poffins, then yes. Though this might explain why so many Pokémon were following me. I guess they like berries."

Damion's face was turning into the same bright red color as the Cheri Berry in Lucas' hands. They were placed in a life-or-death situation because of _berries_?!

"Well, that explains why Caravine was trying to eat you," Dawn said in remarkably calm voice which was flagged suspicious. And sure enough…

BAM! "Ow!" Lucas whimpered as Dawn slapped the back of his head. "What was that for?"

"For not leaving those berries behind and carrying them this entire time! You made yourself live bait and you almost got yourself killed! Which reminds me, I now have another important matter to attend to."

"Huh?" The next thing Damion knew, Dawn smacked him on the head. "OW! DAWN!" Dawn spun around and hit Will as well.

"What was that for?!" Damion sputtered in anger.

Will, on the other hand, was stunned and realized that this was the first time he had been hit by a girl. Not to mention it was someone he didn't really know that well.

"You two could've gotten yourself killed as well! What were you two thinking?" Dawn looked like she was about to burst with angry tears and stamped her foot though it was kind of pointless since she was standing in mud.

"Well, we really couldn't just leave Lucas out there now could we?" Damion groaned and rubbed his back of his head.

"But still! That was incredibly reckless!"

"What?! I was trying to capture it. If anybody is reckless, it's Will. Who throws mud at Pokémon?"

"HEY! I saved all three of your lives!" Will reminded them. He was annoyed that Damion was trying to place the blame on him. "You guys should be thanking me."

"I saved yours! You don't see me asking for thanks."

"BOTH OF YOU GUYS! SHUT UP!" Dawn looked like she was about to rip somebody apart. "YOU TWO HAVE SOME NERVE TO JUST PLACE THE BLAME ON THE OTHER PERSON!"

The lack of sleep and the sudden drain of adrenaline had made her a very bad-tempered person. Both Damion and Will quieted down and they were slowly backing away from Dawn who looked as though she was about to give them the worse yelling every in history.

"I'm sorry Dawn," Lucas said quietly. "I know that this is my fault so don't blame it on them." There was an awkward silence as Dawn turned back to Lucas. Dawn looked like she was about to say something, but then just hit Lucas on the head again.

"OW!"

Dawn took several deep breaths as tears started to spill from her eyes. Now, all three guys felt very, VERY uncomfortable. "J-just don't do something that stupid again! Thanks to all of you, I'm now a mess!" With that Dawn marched off.

"Hey! Where are you going?" Damion yelled.

"Getting a change of clothes and sue the people who promised us that this expedition was going to be fun," Dawn snarled in such a way that made everyone back away, "I'm going to have some serious words with the management!" And with that, she was gone, leaving the three guys alone.

"Well, that was awkward," Will finally spoke up. "I guess I'll head back as well. I don't know about you guys, but I need a shower." With that, the trainer left and followed Dawn.

"Hmph, Dawn is always like that," Damion sighed and turned to Lucas who gave a heavy sigh as well. "Hey, I know Dawn acted mad and all, but she was really scared. She just doesn't like to show it."

"I know." Lucas felt nothing but shame. The last time Dawn was angry with him was back at Veilstone City, and that was less than two days ago. At this rate, he was just going to keep worrying her to death more than anything else.

"Come on, let's go back. When Dawn gets angry, there is no telling who gets hurt."

There was a sudden croaking sound, making both trainers jump in surprise. They turned and looked down to see the purple frog that seemed to be waiting patiently for something.

"Oh hey," Damion remembered Croagunk. "Yeah, thanks for saving… you know, our lives and stuff." Croagunk merely stared back beadily until Damion started to feel uncomfortable.

"So, uhh, yeah… I guess we owe you one…" Suddenly, Damion recalled the environmental protest he saw earlier and added, "We'll be joining that rally to help save your home. I mean, if there are more Pokémon out there like you in this area, I guess it's a place worth saving… Of course, I can't say the same for the Carnavine… but you know, whatever…" For a slight moment, Croagunk gave a toothy grin, which just made it creepier than before.

For the first time since its battle, the frog Pokémon moved and showed what it was holding in one of its hand.

"Oh!" Damion recognized the Safari ball that he used to try and capture Carnavine. "Geez thanks for returning…" But instead of giving the item back, Croagunk punched the circular button and gave Damion a thumbs up before letting itself get captured in the ball.

"HEY!" But there was the familiar 'ding' sound, indicating that Damion had captured Croagunk. "What just happened?"

"I think," Lucas said as he clapped his hands, fortunate to witness the event with pure happiness, "Croagunk wanted to be your friend."

…

_Snowpoint City harbor…_

Daniel's teeth chattered as he stepped off the fishing boat and onto the snowy port. After the heavy blizzard, the sun was out and reflected off the newly fallen snow drifts everywhere. Despite the warmth from the light, Daniel could still remember and feel the bone chilling night out at sea.

"Daniel!" He looked up at the sound of his name and recognized a familiar face in the small crowd.

"Fuuta!" Daniel's face immediately brightened after seeing his best friend again and before Fuuta could object, Daniel immediately started sobbing and gave Fuuta a giant hug.

"Ouch!" Fuuta muttered and could feel everybody's gaze on them, "Get off of me! You're getting your frozen tears all over this jacket!"

"Oh Fuuta! It was horrible! Do you know how bad a fishing boat can smell?"

"Yeah, I noticed." Fuuta's nose wrinkled in disgust.

"And the food! It was terrible! I've been out at sea for so long that I-I-I." Daniel couldn't finish and continued to cry as he relieved the pain and suffering he had endured on the trip.

_Grughhhhhh… _Daniel's stomach gave an all too familiar growl and Fuuta knew that his poor friend was starving… again.

"You… are a totally idiot," Fuuta rolled his eyes to the clear blue sky, wondering if asking Daniel to come back was really worth it. "And stop crying would you?"

_Wow, such a touchy reunion_. Spiritomb appeared in a shadowy haze in front of the two trainers. _It makes a ghost like me want to puke spiritual residue._

"Spiritomb!" Daniel immediately grinned when catching sight of the purple and green spirit Pokémon though Fuuta scowled. "How are you?"

_A lot better after I haunted someone last night, you should've seen him wet the bed._

Daniel looked back blankly and turned to Fuuta for translation.

"He's doing fine," Fuuta interpreted. Like most people, Daniel was unable to communicate with psychic Pokémon, much less a ghost, and often had to have Fuuta translate though Fuuta didn't really want to interpret what Spiritomb was _really_ saying.

_And you!_ Fuuta communicated psychically to Spiritomb. _Don't show yourself in public like that. People are going to stare._

_Well, aren't we a little bit touchy today? Just wanted to say hi._ But the disgruntled Pokémon soon disappeared into the shadows again.

"Where's Shiki?" Daniel looked around as though he expected the girl to suddenly pop out of nowhere. There was so much hope in the guy's face.

"I didn't tell her that you were coming back."

"Didn't…tell?" Daniel's puzzled face showed that he didn't understand. "Wait, why?"

"Did you have something important to tell her?"

"No," Daniel responded blankly, not getting the slight sarcastic joke.

"Well, I didn't call you back here for a reunion. This sort of thing required you to come here to see for yourself. Plus, after everything you had just been through, do you really want me to bring Shiki here?" Daniel immediately registered what Fuuta was implying and quickly shook his head from side to side. If there was one thing the two trainers hate, it was making Shiki worried.

"Okay, good. Now let's go back to the hotel. There were a couple of cute girls there that I still need to flirt with. And you need a nice long bath." And without a single glance back at his friend, Fuuta walked down the stony path where the white snow had been scuffled around by boot prints and such. Daniel followed, but his pace was lively and jumping with excitement – like a hyper child.

"What's up? Why did you want me to come back so abruptly?"

"Well…" Fuuta fell silent; deciding the best way to say what was on his mind. "A couple of weeks ago, there was this Pokémon Contest I was in." Daniel didn't really respond and merely waited for Fuuta to continue.

"And I met a kid there. And… how should I say this…? He looks like your long lost identical twin."

"Identical twin? But I'm an only child. At least… that's what my parents told me… Unless… Gasp, was I cloned? If I am, then am I the real Daniel? Or is this all just some sort of bizarre dif-"

"No, you were not a clone and I _know_ you're an only child," Fuuta quickly said, knowing his friend was prone to freak out rather quickly when he couldn't understand something, "Maybe identical is too strong of a word. What I meant is that he looks very similar to you."

"You mean like same age and height and hair color?"

"Yes and no… he's younger and there are definite distinct differences…" Fuuta fell silent. Those differences were what made the kid different from Daniel, but they also seemed familiar in Fuuta's mind. He wasn't sure why.

"So like a brother? Wait… was this the surprise? I have a new baby brother?! Is his name Frank?!"

"Daniel, I think your parents would tell you the news, not me if that were the case… And where did you get the name _Frank_?"

"Because it's a cool name… Plus, everybody seems to be calling me that…" Fuuta had a hard time to keep himself from rolling his eyes. He kept forgetting that Daniel made conversations more complicated if they did not get to the point.

"His name is Lucas."

"Lucas?" Daniel looked puzzle now and a brief flash of recognition of the name.

"What? You know him?" Fuuta could feel some strange emotions running through his friend's face.

"N-No. It's nothing… I just think I heard that name before." Daniel didn't elaborate, but the look on his face was unsettling.

"What? Where?" Fuuta could feel a prickling feeling of uneasiness as well.

"Hmm," Daniel scratched the back of his head as he tried to dig deep into his mind. "Ummm… Errrrr… Uhhhh… Welllll… I don't know…"

"A typical Daniel response," groaned Fuuta after waiting with anticipation.

"Hey!" Daniel said to his psychic friend who was shaking his head from side to side. "I've been kidnapped. Cut me some slack, will you?"

"SHHH! Don't say that out loud for everyone to hear!" The two fell silent for a moment and continued to walk before Fuuta just had to ask.

"When we were on the phone… you mentioned you were kidnapped… Care to ex-?" Fuuta abruptly stopped talking and his entire body tensed. Daniel had seen that look before. For a second, he managed to catch a glimpse of Spiritomb before it turned invisible again.

"What's wrong?" Daniel asked; his eyes widened.

_Daniel, _Fuuta replied calmly through the psychic link. _Don't panic, but we're being followed._

Daniel panicked. His eyes widened with shock. He was about to say something, but Fuuta gave a hard cold stare and Daniel managed to clamp his mouth shut.

Fuuta knew the dangers of doing a psychic link with his friend, who had zero compatibility. The last time Fuuta attempted to teach Daniel to open his side of the psychic communication, Daniel ended up with a bloody nose… along with a two-day stay in the hospital for a blood transfusion. It wasn't that Daniel couldn't attempt; it's just that the consequences were far too great. In fact, that was the only time Daniel could recall Shiki genuinely mad at Fuuta.

Luckily, in case of emergencies, Fuuta was talented enough with his powers to force open a link which usually required two parties to contribute their time and part. Fuuta explained to Daniel that a psychic link was like calling someone on the telephone; it can only work if both parties were on the phone line.

_Are you sure? How many people? Should we run? Are they people we know?_ Once he started interacting through this link, Daniel could feel the blood draining from his head and felt that familiar awful dizzy spell. The terrible side effects of communicating through a psychic link were affecting his visions and Daniel prayed that he wouldn't collapse like last time though the snow might cushion the fall better.

_Stop talking! You know the consequence. I only made this link because I was afraid we're being overheard. Just remain calm. I'll take care of everything. If things get bad, run._ Before Daniel could demand for answers, Fuuta immediately cut off the link and continued to walk briskly to the hotel. Daniel quietly tried not to act out of the ordinary as he felt his body slowly return back to normal state. Despite being told to remain calm, his eyes darted around but he didn't see anybody suspicious.

There were some kids running around and playing in the fresh snow. Older teens had snowboards or skis and were walking to the direction where the ski lifts were. Many others were in the quaint coffee shops where the smell of hot cocoa and chocolate blended into the icy air every time someone opened the doors. With so many people outside on this sunny day, surely the people following them wouldn't try to do anything.

Daniel was right. It wasn't the ones who were following them that he should've worried about.

…

_Lake Valor_

"So, Crasher Wake is back?"

"Yes," the young man in the early twenties replied on his cell phone as he stared in disgust at the nature around him. His science lab attire seemed out of place with the beautiful sparkling lake and luscious forest surrounding it. "And it seems he was siding with the activists against the construction. Of course that is no surprise there."

"The boss is not going to be happy about this. And we've already tried to rush the plan after he left to deal with that gym leader in Sunyshore."

"It looks like the Commander is going to have to go back to the original plan. But still, this is a perfect."

"How so?"

"Because," the man grinned as he inspected his fingernails for nonexistent dirt, "this is an opportunity to distract the gym leader from the real plan."

"Excuse me!" The mysterious man, irritated that he was being interrupted on his "private" conversation, turned to see the mayor of Pastoria City standing impatiently behind him. "I have done everything you have told me to do, but why do I have to be the scapegoat for this? Honestly!" This thirty year old or so woman obviously didn't like to be ordered around by someone who was more than ten years her junior.

"Patience, Miss Mayor," the guy sighed, still wondering why Commander Saturn had to include this woman into the plan, "We're going to get this done. And when we do, you'll be leagues above that gym leader."

"Hmph, you better be right. I still don't see the point of all this, draining a stupid marsh. Even if your company funded the project I still don't see why you need it done."

"Oh you'll see." The scientist flashed a small smile to himself. If only she knew what they were really planning to do. But then again, after what all the whining he had to endure, Erik couldn't wait to see the horror on her face when she finally found out what was in store.

**Author's Notes**

Well, okay that was a terrible April's Fool spoiler "joke" but I couldn't come up with anything.

Just like to point out that Erik had already shown up in Reverse Time chapter. Anybody know which chapter? You win a cookie if you answer correctly. ;)

And what do you know? Damion unexpectedly caught a Pokémon that is definitely nothing like him. And Daniel is finally back in Sinnoh. Hopefully, he doesn't teleport Fuuta back to Johto.

I noticed that there are several anonymous reviewers out there with questions so I'm going to answer the ones that seem to be repeated continuously.

First off, this story, though a shipping story, is not focused solely on romance. I'll try to add more romance but I don't feel like the storyline so far should go that way just yet. And I'll confess, I'm just not confident at writing teenage romance.

Second, as most of you know, I don't really have the time to update daily like I use to. I don't cancel a story without letting readers know. I have encountered school work, writer's block for several of my stories, and other commitments that results in a longer wait period. I'm sorry, but that's how it goes.

Anyways, thanks for the review and I'll see you in the next chapter.

**-JapanDreamer**


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